Published , by Sam Chandler
Published , by Sam Chandler
Being a creator on YouTube comes with a whole lot of challenges, chief among them being protecting your work from re-uploads. At the request of creators, YouTube is rolling out a new feature to tackle unauthorized copies of videos being uploaded to its video streaming platform.
Ryan Wyatt, Head of Gaming at YouTube, took to Twitter on Thursday, June 17, 2021 to discuss a new feature being implemented by YouTube. According to Wyatt’s Tweet and the attached images, YouTube is giving creators the ability to choose whether or not to prevent copies of videos from being re-uploaded to YouTube as copies.
The official support page on Google gives a thorough breakdown of how this system works. In essence, when users make a copyright takedown request, they’re also able to select an option that “prevents copies of these videos from appearing on YouTube going forward.”
This new program will be initially rolled out to a select few users. However, the Copyright Match Tool, which was only available to those enrolled in the YouTube Partner Program, will be expanded to any creator that “issues a valid takedown request”. This should see more users able to prevent unauthorized uploads of their content being used on other channels.
The post does note that it is up to the users to check if the content is protected by exceptions. For instant, fair use or fair dealing are two reasons why some channels may opt to use another channel’s content.
All of this is a positive move to ensure creators’ content remains their own and isn’t endlessly re-uploaded to other sites. What effects this will have on the meta side of YouTube, for instance the 10-hour uploads, remains to be seen. It will also be interesting to see what happens to videos such as Charlie Bit My Finger, which the original owners removed to sell as an NFT.