YouTube copyright strike is a copyright policing practice used by

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second most vis ...

for the purpose of managing copyright infringement and complying with the

Digital Millennium Copyright Act The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a 1998 United States copyright law that implements two 1996 treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). It criminalizes production and dissemination of technology, devices, or s ...

. The

(DMCA) is the basis for the design of the YouTube copyright strike system. For YouTube to retain

DMCA safe harbor The Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act (OCILLA) is United States federal law that creates a conditional 'safe harbor' for online service providers (OSP) (a group which includes internet service providers (ISP) and other Inter ...

protection, it must respond to copyright infringement claims with a

notice and take down Notice and take down is a process operated by online hosts in response to court orders or allegations that content is illegal. Content is removed by the host following notice. Notice and take down is widely operated in relation to copyright infri ...

process. YouTube's own practice is to issue a "YouTube copyright strike" on the user accused of copyright infringement. When a YouTube user gets hit with a copyright strike, they will be required to watch a warning video about the rules of copyright and take trivia questions about the danger of copyright. A copyright strike will expire after 90 days. However, if a YouTube user accumulates three copyright strikes within those 90 days, YouTube terminates that user's YouTube channel, including any associated channels that the user have, removes all of their videos from that user's YouTube channel, and prohibits that user from creating another YouTube channel. YouTube assigns strikes based on reports of copyright violations from bots. Some users have expressed concern that the strike process is unfair to users. The complaint is that the system assumes the guilt of YouTube users and takes the side of copyright holders even when no infringement has occurred. YouTube and

Nintendo is a Japanese multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles. Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produced handmade playing cards. ...

were criticised by

Cory Doctorow Cory Efram Doctorow (; born July 17, 1971) is a Canadian-British blogger, journalist, and science fiction author who served as co-editor of the blog ''Boing Boing''. He is an activist in favour of liberalising copyright laws and a proponent o ...

, a writer for the blog ''

Boing Boing ''Boing Boing'' is a website, first established as a zine in 1988, later becoming a group blog. Common topics and themes include technology, futurism, science fiction, gadgets, intellectual property, Disney, and left-wing politics. It twice w ...

'', due to them reportedly treating video game reviewers unfairly by threatening them with strikes.

Reasons for strikes

Disagreements about what constitutes fair use

Fair use Fair use is a doctrine in United States law that permits limited use of copyrighted material without having to first acquire permission from the copyright holder. Fair use is one of the limitations to copyright intended to balance the interests ...

is a legal rationale for reusing copyrighted content in a limited way, such as to discuss or criticize other media. Various YouTube creators have reported receiving copyright strikes for using media in the context of fair use.

Suppression of criticism

YouTube creators have reported receiving copyright strikes on videos critical of corporate products. They assert that copyright violation, in this context, has been used as a strategy to suppress criticism.

Strikes for posting own work

Copyright strikes have also been issued against creators themselves. '' Miracle of Sounds channel was hit with multiple copyright strikes as a result of automated strikes by the distributor of their own music.

Strikes for works in the public domain

In a similar incident to such strikes, though in another forum, Sony issued an automated copyright strike against James Rhodes for a video on Facebook of him playing part of a piece by

Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the ''Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard wo ...

, on the grounds that they owned the copyright on a similar recording, and when the strike was challenged, asserted that they owned the rights to the work, before finally admitting that Bach's compositions are in the public domain.

Strikes for unknown reasons

Some publishers on YouTube report not understanding why they have received strikes. This may relate to the fact that 99.95 percent of DMCA takedown notices are actually sent at random URLs that could have existed (valid format) but are not actually used at all at the time the takedown notice is sent. This is the work of bots having no valid claims to any copyright, trying to carpet bomb DMCA notices for various illegal reasons such as trying to ruin a competitor. Techdirt article on bogus DMCA takedown on invalid URLs being the bulk , https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20170223/06160336772/google-report-9995-percent-dmca-takedown-notices-are-bot-generated-bullshit-buckshot.shtml

References

External links

h3h3Productions h3h3Productions is a YouTube channel hosted by Ethan Klein and Hila Klein, an Israeli-American husband-and-wife duo. The majority of their content consists of reaction videos and sketch comedy in which they satirize internet culture. The ''H3 ...

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