The changes will prevent copyright owners from claiming videos with “short song clips” or “unintentional audio”, such as from passing cars.
In a post on their Creator Blog, YouTube said: “Including someone else’s content without permission — regardless of how short the clip is — means your video can still be claimed and copyright owners will still be able to prevent monetization or block the video from being viewed.
🥁New today
A policy preventing Copyright owners from making $ on manual claims for:
🎵Short song clips (ex: 5 sec of a song)
🎵Unintentional audio (ex:🎶from passing cars)Claimants can still block monetization or the video itself, but timestamps help you edit out the claim.
— TeamYouTube (@TeamYouTube) August 15, 2019
“However, going forward, our policies will forbid copyright owners from using our Manual Claiming tool to monetize creator videos with very short or unintentional uses of music.”
The article also goes on to add that the new policy won’t impact automatic claims from the Content ID system, which YouTube says are “the vast majority”.
The news comes after the platform announced in July that manual claims from copyright holders would require timestamps “showing exactly what is claimed”, with new editing tools for creators to remove the audio and release a copyright claim.
“Copyright owners who repeatedly fail to provide accurate data for timestamps will have their access to manual claiming revoked,” they said in a tweet.
It also follows research by the online service Lickd, which found that over half of YouTubers have faced copyright claims with their content.
The new policy will apply to all new manual claims from mid-September.
Want more?
Read more about Lickd’s research into the challenges faced by creators, or find out about the LGBTQ+ YouTubers filing a lawsuit against the platform for alleged discrimination.
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