Last month, it was announced that YouTube will check videos for potential copyright infringements at the uploading stage, a move parent company Google says will help creators “avoid surprises or worries”. It operates through a tool called “Checks” which automatically checks videos and alerts creators of potential copyright claims and ad sustainability restrictions before the videos are published.
YouTube and Copyright Law
Under UK copyright law, when a person creates an original work that is fixed in a physical medium, he or she automatically owns the copyright to the work. The owner has the exclusive right to use the work and to make copies as they wish.
YouTube developed its copyright enforcement tool called Content ID that works by scanning uploaded content against a database of copyrighted materials. If an uploaded video is matched against one in the database, YouTube will warn the user.
Content ID was developed in response to a lawsuit from Viacom in which Viacom sued the video-sharing site for allowing users to upload and view hundreds of thousands of videos owned by Viacom without permission.
A further tool used by YouTube is copyright strikes. This serves to police copyrighted material. Once a user receives a strike, they will be required to watch a video on the dangers of copyright infringement and subsequently answer questions testing their knowledge on the subject.
After three strikes, YouTube will terminate a user’s channel, erase all of their videos and prohibit them from creating another channel. This is highly controversial because it appears to assume the guilt of YouTube users and does little to question the copyright holders.
The implementation of these new tools leads to a large number of copyright claims being made. Content ID was criticised for removing videos or even entire channels for alleged copyright infringement claims which were deemed unfair. This was particularly true in cases where videos were made to review films or video games.
On top of this, the copyright infringement policies were seen as favouring large corporations. This is because if a video has been flagged as containing copyrighted material, it can either be taken down or monetized by the original creator of said material. This means that many unsuspecting users could be exploited by the holders of the copyrighted material who in turn would be making money off of them. This was a very imperfect system with many controversies. A change was needed.
Checks and Content ID – what’s the difference?
The primary difference between the two systems is the timeline. While the former would flag copyrighted material after it was uploaded, Checks matches videos before the uploading stage. In some cases, this makes a lot of sense.
Many users will be unaware that they are about to upload a video that contains copyrighted material and if they are notified before it goes live, then they will be able to rectify the issue on the spot. If a copyright issue is found but users do not think that they have done anything wrong, then they have the opportunity to dispute the claim ahead of time. However, Checks still relies on Content ID and some issues remain.
While it is a step in the right direction, it is unlikely that this will rectify all of the issues that currently exist on the site. One reason for this is that copyright strikes can still occur after the content has been uploaded. While the Checks system is efficient, it is not the end of the line.
A copyright holder can still make a claim post-upload and users are still vulnerable to the same issues highlighted above. Users continue to be vulnerable to exploitation from corporations. The creative arts industry continues to be dominated by a few large companies, from music to movies and TV, and the system that YouTube has in place only serves to protect their unshakeable monopoly.
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