So this came quite a surprise. Although the video I uploaded was marked as “not public”, within minutes of uploading the video I received a copyright warning.
Let’s dig deeper.
I made a video
I have a very popular personal YouTube channel. I try to put up a new video every month or so. They are usually in-depth video tutorials that show a lot of detail about whatever project I’m working on.
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To make watching some of the tedious steps less tedious, I’ve carefully chosen the accompanying music.
Now, let’s be clear. This is not music that I randomly picked up from a CD or downloaded from a streaming service. The music I use is specifically purchased and licensed for use on my YouTube channel.
I pay for the right to use all the tunes I upload.
There are a number of licensed music delivery services. I’ve used audio translation for a few years and quite happy with it. I recently switched to Element Envato because I can buy all year access to both music and video for one flat fee. There are also List of art.iobut I haven’t tried that yet.
When you license music to a video, it can be a permanent part of that video, even if you later stop using a certain service. You have to publish the video while paying for the service, but a long video with years of existence can use that music without further licensing.
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YouTube itself provides YouTube Audio Libraryoffers royalty-free tunes that you can embed in your videos.
For the video in question, I picked up a few 20-30 second clips from Envato Elements, imported them into my Final Cut edit, and published my edit to YouTube. Initially, I always upload my videos as private or unlisted because I want to be able to fill in all the special sections (keywords, description, thumbnails, etc.) choose to allow the video to be public.
And, as I said at the beginning of this article, I immediately received a copyright warning notice from YouTube.
YouTube display mode
Before I get into the warning and what ended up happening, let’s clarify the different display modes YouTube offers.
Public is the display mode most people experience. Videos listed as public can be viewed by anyone.
non-public mode equivalent of Google Drive’s “people with this link can”. Basically, if you have a link to the video, you can watch it. But the video is not showing up on any channel or in any available video list. It is hidden, but viewable.
Private mode is (or should be) just that. It is only available for you (and obviously the copyright scanner) to view and view. To view it, you must be signed in to the account that uploaded it.
I always thought those modes were sacrosanct. If you list something as unlisted, only the people you provided the link to (and the people to whom they provided the link) can see it. If you list something as private, it’s only visible to you.
That may not be the case. Continue reading.
Copyright strike
As soon as I uploaded my unlisted video, I got the following message:
This is a copyright warning. It’s different from what YouTube calls copyright strike. When you are subject to a copyright strike, your account is about to be terminated. Three strikes and YouTube may terminate your account.
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What I got was a more benign form of complaint, a copyright warning. When the copyright owner claims they own the copyright, they can choose to receive your monetization revenue to pay for the song. My videos are not monetized, but I might one day. Furthermore, I paid for the right to use the song.
The first step is that you can dispute the claim. When your video is not clear about copyright, there is a button that you can click on the video to dispute the claim. You can provide information explaining your rights and the complainant can choose to have their claim dismissed. I did that, but the complainant, Elite Alliance Music, still insists their claim is valid. I received another email:
What’s interesting is that all this fuss took place while the video was not made public.
By this point, I’m annoyed. I contacted Envato (whom I bought the song from), but they were of little help. They refused to intervene on my behalf, but provided me with an email address for support at Elite Alliance Music.
I sent Elite a note explaining that I had a music license. I finally got in touch with someone who asked for details about both the video and the license. I shared those with him and a claim was made. My videos are free!
Privacy question: the rest of the story
After the complaint was made, I sent a note back to the email address I have for Elite. I asked them like, “How did your system even find this video? It hasn’t been published yet, but as soon as I uploaded it as an unlisted video, your system mounted it. flag it. I didn’t even think you’d be able to see it until I opened it publicly.”
The response I received from Epic Elite Support was interesting: “Content ID will automatically track any video that uses our customer’s music, whether private or public. declaration, so that we can analyze the video and take appropriate action.”
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This process must be automated. My video is seven minutes long, and I received an email about copyright infringement within a minute or two after the upload was complete. There’s no way one could view it and identify potentially infringing tunes at the time.
YouTube’s Content ID mechanism moves uploaded videos through “a database of visual and audio content submitted to YouTube by the copyright owner.” Basically, the YouTube server scans the uploaded bits and compares them with bit patterns that represent copyrighted material.
I already know about the Content ID system, and in fact, I think it’s a good idea. As someone who makes a living off of the content I create, I appreciate a system that helps prevent people from stealing other people’s work.
What I didn’t know was that Content ID not only scans public videos, but also private and unlisted videos. Since uploaded videos marked as private are not available to other users, it seems that a copyright scan is not even necessary.
However, as the support person from Elite told me, private videos are also scanned.
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This is worrisome, even if the scanning is automated. That means those private videos are accessible by other systems and strictly speaking not private.
I reached out to YouTube via their press contact email address and asked the following questions, just to make sure I fully understand the possibilities and limitations of private video scanning. I ask:
- Do potential stakeholders like EpicElite have access to all non-public and private videos (including audio and video), just the audio, or the hash of the audio?
- Is it possible that any person in any organization can view videos listed as non-public or private to assess copyright ownership?
- Who else/what other organization can view or listen to the content of non-public or private videos?
Unfortunately, YouTube did not respond to my request for more information. If I get a response, I’ll update it here.
What does it all mean?
As an active YouTuber, I find some things frustrating and unsettling.
I’m annoyed that I even have to deal with this problem. You would think that purchasing a license from a reputable vendor like Envato meant that copyright issues would be resolved before the songs were released to licensees. But because people without a license can use the songs, copyright owners must be careful.
I’ve learned that just because you license your music to YouTube, it doesn’t protect you from later having to spend time protecting the right to use that content, delaying your video’s publication, and may affect your ability to earn a living. The publication of my video has been delayed by a week while I work on this issue.
I’m annoyed with Elite Alliance, the copyright managers. My initial dispute over their claim should have sufficed, since I provided the license information via the standard form. Having to escalate beyond that dispute is tension.
I’m also annoyed with Envato. After the copyright dispute was denied, I expect Envato to step in and actively defend the rights to use the music I have licensed from them. Instead, all the company did was provide an email address to the copyright manager at Elite and wish me luck.
Luckily, when I contacted someone at Elite, the issue was resolved. But the automated solution obviously tends to deny claims, even when the appropriate license has been submitted.
And I wonder that YouTube allows any system to scan private videos. Videos listed as private must be private. Stage = Stage. Once they are released to anyone outside the account holder (whether public or private), I agree to allow them to be scanned. But privacy should be private as long as it’s not illegal or immoral.
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Why might someone want a video to be private? It could be an unfinished video that the creator wants to see what it looks like before it’s released. It could be a video covering an embargoed and undisclosed topic that cannot be shared until a certain date and time. It could be personal content like a wedding or family reunion video that someone wants to store in the cloud. It could be a video of something medically related, to discuss with a doctor later by sending a link, or showing it on a smartphone or tablet. It could also be a video of a puppy running around the house that you want to keep and watch but don’t want to share with everyone.
I also wonder if there are cases where humans at YouTube or Google can watch private videos. There could be a law enforcement issue in the case where a private video contains harmful material, but until or unless YouTube answers my question, I can’t share YouTube’s reasoning with you.
So there you go. It was a bit of an annoying process but it all worked out in the end. Just keep in mind that if your videos are not public or private, Big Brother will still show them.
Do you have a copyright claim against your video? Are you concerned about the level of “privacy” that the private designation provides? Any other thoughts on this issue? Let us know in the comments below.
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