YouTube Checks will now warn of copyright problems before you post

Those familiar with uploading content on YouTube have likely received copyright warnings due to some graphic or piece of music in their video. Unfortunately, these warnings only came after the video had already, something YouTube’s new ‘Checks’ service aims to rectify.

Guest post by Bobby Owsinski of Music 3.0

If you post on YouTube a lot you’ve probably run into a copyright problem before. Maybe you’ve used a piece of a song by someone else, or a piece of video, or even a graphic. Maybe you’ve received a copyright warning over your own music, which is the ultimate insult. The problem is that these strikes pop up after you post – sometimes way past the time it was posted. It’s always a surprise. YouTube is trying to make this easier though, and has instituted a new system called YouTube Checks that will actually warn you of a copyright problem even before you post.

The new tool tells a creator ahead of time if their video contains copyrighted material and complies with advertising guidelines. The system relies on the company’s Content ID algorithm is determine if your content contains a possible violation. If it does, that doesn’t prevent you from posting the video, but it does automatically notify the copyright holder first. That means that your video will either be blocked from posting, or will post with ads that monetize your video for the copyright holder.

Not only does Checks look at the video for copyright violations, but it also screens the metadata for possible violations as well. These can include profanity and background check info, but also deceptive titles as well. Plus it evaluates ad suitability too. The entire process only takes about 3 minutes for copyright but can take a lot longer for ad check, but that’s a small price to pay for the hours of frustration that always come up when there’s a problem with a YouTube flag.

The whole idea here is to prevent long and many times unproductive copyright disputes that usually mean that the content creator is not able to monetize the video in the meantime, if ever. On thing to remember though is that YouTube Checks does not guarantee that you still won’t receive a copyright claim at a later date, although it does diminish that possibility somewhat.

You can find out more here or in the video below.