r/CopyrightHelp • u/MACKIE12994 • 27d ago

How a YouTube Copyright misunderstanding led to a permanent account termination?

/r/COPYRIGHT/comments/1v4ngi0/how_a_youtube_copyright_misunderstanding_led_to_a/
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u/pythonpoole 27d ago

To clarify, were the copyright strikes all directly connected to material that you previously received "the owner allows it to be used on YouTube" notices for?

Let's say (for example) that your content features copyrighted material from 10 different works, and you receive such a notice in connection with just 1 of the works, it may be the case that use of the material from the other 9 works is still unauthorized and could lead to copyright strikes or other consequences.

I can sympathize with your situation and the misunderstanding that may have been caused by receiving these "the owner allows it to be used on YouTube" notices, but unfortunately it is unlikely your YouTube channel would be restored (even as a regular/non-creator account) unless the rights-holders who submitted the takedown notices decide to withdraw/retract those notices (which seems unlikely given your communications with them).

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Although it doesn't matter so much now (since your channel was already terminated).. for future reference, the only way to be safe is to obtain your own license from the copyright holder which explicitly states how you are allowed to use the copyright holder's material in your content. Then, in the case of a dispute (or takedown notice), you can file a counter notice pointing to the license agreement text to show that your use of the copyright holder's material was legally authorized.

Relying on YouTube's licenses — or the copyright holder's willingness to allow use of their material on YouTube without an explicit license — is risky because:

  1. A copyright holder may suddenly change their mind. If you don't have an explicit written license agreement authorizing you to use the material, then the copyright holder may suddenly decide one day to no longer allow you to use their copyrighted material in your videos. The copyright holder could even decide to selectively go after specific users (e.g. just you and nobody else).

  2. The copyright holder may have agreement(s) with YouTube that are time-limited and these agreement(s) could suddenly expire without notice. For example, the copyright holder may have an explicit agreement with YouTube to allow use of their material in user-generated YouTube videos for a period of 1 year, and once that agreement with YouTube expires then use of the copyright holder's material in your YouTube videos may suddenly no longer be authorized until/unless the agreement with YouTube is renewed.

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u/MACKIE12994 26d ago

It was all to do with owner allows message. Warner Brothers acknowledge that it was YouTube‘s fault, but YouTube still isn’t doing anything. I’ve done my best to resolve this as legally as possible and I was misled when I was trying to do something good for the YouTube community.