How a Samsung Washing Machine Buzzer Caused a YouTube Copyright Fiasco

To address this issue, YouTube did not expedite the dispute process, which still allows up to 30 days for rights holders to respond. Instead, it sped up the appeals process, which occurs after a rightsholder rejects a disputed claim and is arguably the time when a YouTuber’s account is most in danger of being terminated.

“The claimant will now have 7 days instead of 30 to review the appeal before deciding whether to request removal of the video, release the claim, or let it expire,” YouTube wrote in 2022. “We hope to shorten the appeal deadline.” The appeals process helps you resolve claims much faster!”

This update would only help YouTubers trying to dispute claims, as Albino did, but not the majority of YouTubers, who, the EFF reported, apparently felt so intimidated by challenging Content ID claims that they most commonly that they would simply accept “whatever punishment the system has imposed on them.” “. The EFF summed up the situation that many YouTubers are still trapped in today:

There is a terrible circular logic that traps creators on YouTube. They can’t afford to dispute Content ID matches because that could lead to DMCA notices. They can’t afford to receive DMCA notices because they lead to copyright strikes. Copyright actions cannot be allowed as they could result in the loss of your account. They can’t afford to lose their account because they can’t afford to lose access to YouTube’s giant audience. And they can’t afford to lose access to that audience because they can’t count on making money from YouTube ads alone, in part because Content ID often diverts advertising money to rights holders when there’s a match. ContentID. Something they can’t afford to discuss.

For Albino, who said he has fought many Content ID claims, the Samsung washing machine chime that triggered demonetization seemed to be the last straw, breaking his patience with YouTube’s dispute process.

“It’s completely out of control,” Albino wrote in X.

Katharine Trenacosta, a youtube researcher and EFF policy and advocacy director, agreed with Albino, telling Ars that YouTube’s Content ID system hasn’t improved over the years: “It’s worse, it’s intentionally opaque and it’s made to be incredibly difficult to navigate” for creators.

“I don’t know any YouTube creators who are happy with the way Content ID works,” Trendacosta told Ars.

But while many people think YouTube’s system isn’t great, Trendacosta also said he “can’t think of a way to create the matching technology” to improve it, because “machines can’t distinguish context.” Perhaps if YouTube’s matching technology triggered a human review every time, “that might be sustainable,” but “they would have to hire a lot more people to do it.”

What YouTube could be doing, however, is updating its policies to make the dispute process less intimidating for content creators, Trendacosta told Ars. Right now, the biggest problem for creators, Trendacosta’s research has shown, is not how long it takes YouTube to resolve the dispute process, but “the way YouTube phrases the dispute process to discourage you from disputing.” “.

“The system is very discouraging,” Trendacosta told Ars, and YouTube warned YouTubers that starting a dispute could result in a copyright strike that terminates their accounts. “What it ends up doing is making them say, ‘You know what? I’ll eat it, whatever.'”

YouTube, which previously dismissed complaints about the Content ID tool by saying that “no system is perfect,” did not respond to Ars’ request for comment on whether there might be any updates to the tool that could benefit creators. Instead, YouTube’s plan appears to be to take pity on users who probably can’t afford to leave the platform because of their concerns.

“I totally understand your frustration,” the YouTube team told Albino on X.

This story originally appeared on Ars Technique.