Members of the gaming community are bitter about 3,500 YouTube Copyright Strikes landing a death blow on GilvaSunner, a popular YouTube channel among gamers with 469K subscribers which published 6,400 videos and garnered over 1.5 Billion views for 12 years. In the past week, the YouTube channel received 3,500 YouTube Copyright Strikes from Nintendo. With half of its inventory taken down, GilvaSunner announced the deletion of the channel.
While GilvaSunner is a YouTube creator and has experienced the full wrath of a big brand protecting its intellectual property, it doesn’t mean brands are immune to YouTube Copyright Strikes. In fact, brands have more at stake.
Even Brands Can Be Hit By YouTube Copyright Strikes
Touchstorm has been managing YouTube channels of Fortune-500 brands for more than a decade. Touchstorm’s certified YouTube experts frequently carry out Channel Audits of the YouTube channels of some of the largest brands in the world to keep a proactive check on the videos published and prevent any copyright strikes.
As part of the Channel Audit, Touchstorm experts have often encountered circumstances wherein a brand could have got into trouble due to the contract with a music composer, artist, or a production house whose services were employed for a YouTube video were about to end, and the brand managers were not aware of it.
Imagine a top automobile brand having a high-performing YouTube video of a popular SUV model. The artist whose music is used in it finds out the video is available on the brand’s YouTube channel, past the expiration date mentioned in the contract with the brand. A YouTube Copyright Strike will force the brand to remove the high-performing video from YouTube or even pay a large sum of money to the artist to come to a settlement. Brands must be aware that copyright strikes are also a way of extortion for litigious individuals looking to make a quick buck.
Receiving a copyright strike on YouTube means instant death of the video under dispute. Google takes down a video immediately after receiving a complete and valid legal takedown request by a copyright owner for using their copyright-protected content. Moreover, three copyright strikes will result in the YouTube account’s termination and all the videos ever published on it.
Although one can contest the copyright strikes on YouTube and even approach the court if needed, no one, especially brands, would want to invest their precious time and money in litigations or pay up extortion.
Six Tips On How Brands Can Avoid YouTube Copyright Strikes
1. Regular Inventory Checks
Ensure thorough vetting of all videos in your YouTube brand channel’s inventory. Keep a ready list of videos that require entering into a contract with an agency or a personality, along with the contract’s expiration date. Take preemptive measures to avoid being issued copyright strikes.
2. Use Royalty-Free Music
As a brand, your product is your star. If you can avoid hiring a celebrity to promote your product, you must probably do so! Many websites provide a vast collection of royalty-free music for a free or reasonable price. YouTube Audio Library is a free source of good music that won’t get you in trouble.
3. Consult the Legal Counselor
Yes, the best way to avoid YouTube Copyright Strikes is to consult your company’s legal counselor regarding the contracts you sign with all the parties for a video. Find out if all the potential trouble areas are covered before you decide to produce and publish a video. Even if you have purchased the license for artwork, get the legal counselor to read through it to know if any clauses may get you into trouble, depending on how you plan to utilize the work. Don’t hesitate to consult your legal counselor.
4. Review Video With YouTube Checks Before Uploading
Last year, YouTube launched the ‘Checks’ feature in YouTube Studio’s desktop version, which helps take preemptive measures to avoid copyright issues. As part of the video upload process, the Checks feature automatically screens the uploads for potential Content ID claims and ad suitability restrictions.
5. Use Tools to ‘Sunset’ Your Videos at the Right Time
Brands often partner with artists, production houses, or music composers for their YouTube content. Publication of these videos is subject to legal contracts, and some videos are required to be taken down after a certain period. Use tools that will help you automate taking down (sunsetting) such videos at the precise hour and day to avoid any copyright strike.
The Video Sunsetting & Publishing tool by VideoAmigo helps you take YouTube content down when rights expire and emails you reminders in case something changes. The tool “talks” to YouTube and automates the process of sunsetting or even publishing a video at a given time.
6. Get Your YouTube Channel Audited
A big brand might not have enough human resources with expertise in YouTube to get the YouTube brand channel’s entire inventory diagnosed for any potential copyright infringements or other issues hindering the channel’s performance and reach. Touchstorm offers YouTube Channel Audit service that includes a complete channel analysis covering more than 30 essential data points and shows how associated actions can affect this data and improve results.
Touchstorm’s certified YouTube experts review any copyright claims or strikes against the channel, document them, review them with the client, and provide necessary resolutions as part of the Channel Audit.
Learn more about how Touchstorm helps brands avoid copyright strikes on their YouTube channels. Contact Touchstorm on [email protected].
