New YouTube Guidelines Could Result In More Takedowns

YouTube has a long-standing problem with copyright claims on their videos. Many people who use the video hosting site often have problems when obscure or even only 3-4 second long audio clips get copyright claimed by Sony, BGM or some other huge corporation. It’s a hugely frustrating point to the content creator as, more often than not, a copyright claim will automatically start paying any revenue to the claimant.

Well, in a report via Engadget, YouTube has confirmed that upcoming changes to the rules will stop that from happening in the future. They have, however, warned that it will likely (at least initially) result in far more strikes and takedowns. Is this good news for content creators though? Well, yes and no!

YouTube To Introduce New Guidelines

So, under current rules, if you have a video that violates someone’s copyright, they can place a successful claim against it. This (largely) means that the ad revenue generated is diverted to their account. While copyrights are, of course, important many feel it has incentivised organisations to be overly harsh on claims submitted. It has even resulted in videos with audio as short as 2-3 seconds being successfully claimed. A claim which, as above, removes their ad revenue regardless of the overall length of the video itself.

Many believe that the current system is open to abuse. With many videos being ‘claimed’ despite falling clearly falling under ‘fair use’. Such as, for example, a legitimate review. The problem is compounded further with YouTubes ‘dispute’ option which is both overworked and, frankly, slow to respond.

What Do We Think?

If YouTube does stop automatic revenue diversions, then this will be positive news. The downside, however, is that the alternative is them issuing video takedowns. Even (in more notable or multiple examples) strikes being issued against accounts. So, clearly, some adjustments are going to be necessary. We do, however, suspect that YouTube will be a little forgiving with ‘strikes’ as this transition takes place.

The short version is, in the long term this is probably a good idea. There is, however, clearly going to be some big teething problems here!

What do you think? Is this a good idea? Does YouTube have a problem with bad copyright claim rules? Have you ever had an unfair claim or strike? – Let us know in the comments!