YouTube Copyright Updates

With the advent of SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) YouTube Copyright policing

is occurring on a much wider more advanced scale than ever before. If

you’re an online marketer, video publisher, or social media account

manager then you should definitely take heed of these new policies

and understand them thoroughly or you may unknowingly violate YouTube’s copyright code and subsequently have your video deleted or even worse have

your page shut down. So here’s an outline of the new policy and ways to

protect yourself.

Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, YouTube isn’t actually held accountable for the copyright

infringement, its users are. However, that didn’t stop Viacom’s billion dollar

lawsuit and with SOPA creeping in, YouTube doesn’t want to take any

chances.

YouTube Copyright | Content ID

Just how does YouTube copyright laws work and how can you protect your images, logos, and videos? Through

something that YouTube calls Content ID, and its explained throughly in

Mashable’s recent article on YouTube copyright.

To use Content ID, rights holders submit copies of content or ID files that are

then run against user uploads. Copyright holders can assign various

policies to their content in the event of a match. The policy options are:

Block — This means that if a content match is found, the video will not be viewable.Track — The video can stay online, but the content owner will be able to track how many views it receives and from where.Monetize — Rights holders can choose to serve ads on the content and they will receive revenue from those ads.

Policy options are available on a regional basis, which allows rights holders to block content in some

regions, while keeping them accessible in others.

YouTube users can find out about any copyright notices or Content ID matches

by visiting the “Copyright Notices” section of the video manager.

The thing is not everyone out there actually claims their Content ID, so

thousands of videos violate copyright laws and are uploaded everyday.

Its no secret that one of the major reasons that YouTube copyright policies

are being enforced so strictly is that YouTube makes a good deal of money

from this Content ID according to a trusted source.

YouTube Copyright | Monetizing

Within a year, Google had tamed the Wild West of copyright infringement that characterized YouTube’s pioneer

days, both through licensing deals with major content providers and through a content-management program, called

Content ID, that alerted copyright holders automatically whenever any part

of their content went up on YouTube.

Owners can choose to remove the content, sell ads against it and share the

money with YouTube, or use it as a promotional tool. Content ID generates

a third of YouTube’s revenue.

(In June, 2010, Louis Stanton, the judge in the long-running Viacom v. YouTube case, granted summary judgment to YouTube. Viacom is appealing that

ruling, and a decision is expected soon.)

Every one is cracking down on piracy and copyright violations these days. It makes

me wonder if YouTube will disappear from the YouTube that we all know and

love.

YouTube Copyright | Conclusion

One where we can easily listen to any song at the click of a button. However its better to be safe than sorry, so stay

informed about YouTube copyright updates.