YouTube & Copyright: Navigating Claims, Fair Use, and Legal Battles

Picture this: You’ve spent hours perfecting your YouTube video, a montage of clips from your favorite trending movies , all tuned with a bollywood song. You click on upload, and within minutes, boom! A copyright claim appears. Your heart turns upset. What went wrong?

Welcome to the rollercoaster world of YouTube and copyright, where creativity collides with boundaries, and fair use lines get blurred faster than a TikTok trend. Let’s break it down. It’s fun, interactive, and legally enlightening.

COPY RIGHT BASICS

So the good news: copyright laws were established to help protect creators. If someone creates music, films, or memes, they can be considered their owners, especially if it isn’t in public domain.

Now, the bad news: YouTube is a platform where billions of videos are uploaded, and copyright owners are on high alert. Their weapon of choice? Content ID—YouTube’s automated system that scans videos for copyrighted material.[1]

Sounds fair, right? But the issue is even a tiny snippet of a song or a clip can be considered as a source of a claim.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU GET A COPYRIGHT CLAIM?

Think of a copyright claim as a friendly slap on the wrist.

Monetization Grab: The copyright owner gets all the ad revenue from your video. Yup, even if it’s your hard work that brought in the views.[2]

Video Blocked: Your masterpiece might be banned in certain countries—or worse, worldwide.[3]

Strike: If you get too lenient, you may get hit with a copyright strike. Three strikes? Bid your channel goodbye.[4]

FAIR USE: THE GREY AREA

Alright, let’s talk about fair use. It’s this crazy, mystical law that lets you use copyright material without getting permission-but only in certain situations. For instance:

Commentary or Criticism: You’re critiquing a film or analyzing a music video? You should be good.

Education: Teaching something? That’s often fair game.

But the catch is “fair use” is subjective. Even if you think your video qualifies, the copyright owner might disagree, and Content ID doesn’t care.[5]

THE CASEY NEISTAT CASE

Popular YouTuber Casey Neistat once used a little clip of a song in his video, believing it was fair use. Boom—copyright claim. The ad revenue his viral video raked in? Took by the song’s owner.[6]

Gaming Videos

Gamers often have music copyrights on background music in games. Imagine streaming your victory royale, only to find your ad revenue being claimed by the artist behind the lobby music. Ow! Brutal![7]

Cover Songs

Singing your favorite song on YouTube? The performance might be yours, but the composition isn’t. Many creators have faced claims despite adding their unique spin to popular tracks.

How to Protect Yourself and your sanity:

Use Royalty-Free Music: Platforms like Epidemic Sound or YouTube’s own Audio Library offer safe tunes.

Make sure your video adds significant value and twists, don’t just re-upload someone else’s work.

Get Permission: If in doubt, reach out to the copyright owner.

Dispute Claims: If you believe your video qualifies as fair use, YouTube lets you challenge claims but it is a long process.

VIACOM INTERNATIONAL INC V. YOUTUBE INC.

This case centers around an alleged violation of copyright over YouTube content. Media giant Viacom sued YouTube, along with parent company Google, for having hosted thousands of videos with copyrights of various contents from the conglomerate’s Viacom-owned properties such as The Daily Show and SpongeBob SquarePants.

Viacom argued that YouTube knew it was allowing copyrighted content to be uploaded and profited from it, thus making them liable for infringement. YouTube defended itself under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which provides safe harbor protections for platforms hosting user-generated content, as long as they promptly remove infringing material when notified.[8]

Court granted the initial judgment in favor of YouTube on the ground that it was covered under the DMCA since it removed the infringing content on notice.

Viacom appealed, and for years, both parties engaged in a back-and-forth. The case settled out of court in 2014, but it pointed out the difficulty in enforcing copyright in such platforms where there is tremendous user-generated content.

Relevance to YouTube Creators

The Viacom case really underlines the complexity of copyright enforcement on platforms such as YouTube. It shows that there is actually a lot more to it: between the strong right of creators and the almost sheer demand of copyright owners.[9]

To the creators, this case remains a strong reminder of the landscape of law they operate within. Although YouTube is protected by the DMCA, individual creators can be held directly liable with charges or strikes for using copyrighted material without permission.

Think of YouTube as a concert. Creators are the performers, the audience is the world, and copyright owners? They are the security, making sure no one sneaks in without a ticket. Step out of line, and you might get kicked out.

As AI and automation improve, it is trying to find a balance between safeguarding the rights of copyright owners and empowering the creators on platforms like YouTube. The debate over what’s fair and transformative and original rages on.

Author: NICOLE EARL, in case of any queries please contact/write back to us via email to chhavi@khuranaandkhurana.com or at Khurana & Khurana, Advocates and IP Attorney.

[1] YouTube Help, How Content ID Works, Google, https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2797370?hl=en (last visited Jan. 21, 2025).

[2] YouTube Help, What Is a Copyright Claim?, Google, https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6013276?hl=en (last visited Jan. 21, 2025).

[3] YouTube Help, Copyright Strike Basics, Google, https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2814000?hl=en (last visited Jan. 21, 2025).

[4] YouTube Help, Community Guidelines Strike Basics, Google, https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2802032?hl=en (last visited Jan. 21, 2025).

[5] YouTube Help, Fair Use and Copyright on YouTube, Google, https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/9783148?hl=en (last visited Jan. 21, 2025).
U.S. Copyright Office, Fair Use Index, https://www.copyright.gov/fair-use/ (last visited Jan. 21, 2025).

[6] Casey Neistat, My Copyright Nightmare (May 17, 2016), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8hKVFzOzH0.

[7] YouTube Help, Using Copyrighted Music in Gaming Videos, Google, https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/9479343?hl=en (last visited Jan. 21, 2025).

[8] Digital Media Law Project, Viacom International Inc. v. YouTube, Inc., Berkman Klein Ctr. for Internet & Soc’y, https://www.dmlp.org/legal-guide/viacom-v-youtube (last visited Jan. 21, 2025).

[9] U.S. Copyright Office, The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, https://www.copyright.gov/legislation/dmca.pdf (last visited Jan. 21, 2025).