The Facts

What is the problem?

Simply put, machines are now deciding whether you’re committing copyright infringement. People have their videos taken down or profits redirected because of erroneous claims. For some, they own the material. For others, they have explicitly been given the right to use it. Even worse, some things are in the public domain and CANNOT be copyrighted, yet there are claims filed against those videos. The main problems come from YouTube’s ContentID and Twitch’s partnership with Audible Magic.

What do these systems even do?

YouTube has a database of content-holders and their owned content. Audible Magic has a similar one. Their systems automatically scan the billions of videos stored on YouTube and Twitch and flag videos which match content. For YouTube, there is a whitelist function: you can give a channel the right to use certain material. If a YouTube video is flagged, the content-holder can choose to track, mute, block, or reroute ad revenue for that video. Unless the flag is contested, it is assumed to be correct. If a flag is contested and declined, the next step if you are in the right is to do a DMCA counterclaim. It may take a short while, but the dispute should resolve in your favor, if the flag was truly done in error. Twitch archives 30-minute segments of past streams, and these are scanned for infringement. If any portion of that archived video is flagged, the entire video is muted. To my knowledge, there is no way to contest the flags, aside from contacting Twitch or the content holder and allowing them to resolve the problem.

What’s the history?

• On March 13, 2007, YouTube was brought to court by Viacom for lack of enforcement of copyright.
• On October 15, 2007, Content ID was launched. For further history of YouTube and its copyright infringement detection, read here.
• On December 10, 2013, YouTube widened the scope of Content ID, causing a mass of false claims and a large community outburst.
• Immediately following, many game companies who had given rights to use their games spoke out, attempting to help remove false claims.
• On August 6, 2014, Twitch partnered with Audible Magic and began applying audio recognition to mute copyright-infringing VODs (Video On Demand, i.e. archived content), each 30-minute segments.
• Immediately following, the sudden implementation and resulting mass flagging produced an outburst from the community, resulting in Twitch CEO Emmett Shear holding an “ask me anything” session attempting to locate problems and quell complaints.

Has the situation improved?

When the community erupted with complaints after the changes in 2013, YouTube made some fixes. They focused on better verification and gave information about alternative audio options, such as royalty-free songs and tools to remove infringing audio. Still, it’s not perfect, and when Twitch implemented a similar system later in the year, none of these improvements were there. The same complaints erupted, and it appears that the situation has not gotten much better.

Why should you care?

• Most people impacted by these systems have been gamers. If you review games or watch reviews of games, you should be aware that these videos are being blocked and why.
• Even if you do not care about games, music is everywhere. Someone may walk past, blaring music out of headphones while you’re recording, and suddenly your video will get blocked. You may record a speech or interview, and someone refers to a song by humming or singing. Perhaps you are a musician, and the system thinks your music isn’t yours. Know how to fix this.
• This system isn’t perfect. It makes mistakes. Know what is a mistake and what isn’t. Anyone’s videos can be taken down wrongly, and if you aren’t informed or don’t question, you will erroneously be labeled a copyright offender.

How can you prevent false claims?

• Avoid playing music to which you do not have the rights. If it is copyrighted, don’t use it.
• Avoid cutscenes and trailers, even without sound. YouTube in particular has some video-detection capabilities which can get your video blocked.
• Seek publisher permission. If you can get explicit permission from the right-holder, you should be able to contest claims against you.
• This isn’t perfect. Sometimes, the detection is just outright wrong. If you know you’re in the right, don’t be afraid to counterclaim.

Can this system be fixed?

Truthfully, I don’t know. If it were easy, it would have been done already. That said, there are a few things that I have noticed, and if anyone has suggestions, please share.

• Remove the redirect ad revenue option, or require verification before following through. Leaving this option makes fraud much more likely, as someone can claim another’s content and reap the profits of those who don’t contest.
• Whitelist or provide owner identification, if it’s not already there. There have been instances on Twitch where companies have had their own audio muted on their behalf. This should not be happening. When official channels are muted, there’s a problem.
• Implement selective muting. Fifteen seconds of a copyrighted song shouldn’t mute half an hour, even more of a video. Disable audio for just the portion flagged by the system, and you protect copyright without overcompensating.

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