How to get, and how to use, royalty free music is a huge topic (which we'll be covering more of in the future) but for this post, we'll focus on the resource that YouTube itself offers its own creators. What's so great about that? Well:

Royalty free (AKA copyright free) music means that no other person or legal entity owns the rights to that musical composition, and therefore and no royalties are due or must be paid.

So, YouTube creators can use it for their content without fear of attracting a copyright strike or a takedown request. Neither of which you want. So, let's run through our quick guide to YouTube's royalty-free Audio Library to help you add some sparkle to your content.

How to Access Royalty Free Music from YouTube's Audio Library

From any YouTube desktop screen, click your profile image in the top right-hand corner and click on YouTube Studio.

On the left-hand menu, you’ll find a link to an Audio Library you can access

If you want to hear a sample of a track, just click the play button so you can listen and decide if it’s right for you. When you find the right track for you, just click on the download button:

If you want to go hunting for a specific music track, you have four columns that are sortable:

'Genre' and 'Mood' aren't sortable, but they do act as automatic filters. For example, if you mouse over 'Mood' and click the filter button, the Audio Library will now only show you the type of music you want to select from.

The terms and conditions of using music directly from this source are pretty straightforward. As a creator, you are allowed to use any of these tracks and still monetize your videos without fear of a copyright claim. Just make sure you don't distribute the music yourself, or use it in any illegal content.

When it comes to finding and using 100% royalty free music, we always recommend using YouTube's own Audio Library. That way, any music you use from the library is 100% guaranteed to work on your YouTube videos 

Watch our handy guide to royalty free music from YouTube here:

Of course, there are many free, royalty-free services that offer you music off of the YouTube platform. But, just as a word of warning, you use those services at your own risk. 

 offer their music royalty-free, but then change their mind in the future, and there's nothing stopping them from then copyright claiming your content. 

Yes, that is a really sneaky thing to do, and it's not common, but when you get music from outside of the YouTube Audio Library, you're just opening yourself up to that potential danger. 

By the way, did you notice the link to Audio Classic Library remains active (at least for now)?

If you use any audio from this library it will come with an extra setting - Attribution. 

If you use some of the music in this section, you must include particular attribution text in your video description. The new Studio Audio Library does have this filter setting, but I haven't seen any music yet that requires attribution. 

Also, sound effects haven't yet been implemented in the new studio. So you will still have to jump to the Classic Studio section to get to them.

If you want to take your YouTube channel to the next level and 

 then make sure to download vidIQ. Join over 1 million other users and use vidIQ to help you research YouTube, analyze videos, audit your own channel, and take actionable steps to succeed. 

And if you’re really serious about growing your YouTube views and subscribers, sign up for exclusive access to the 

 and learn how to launch a successful YouTube Channel.

YouTube offers creators free access to royalty free music for their own video content - without the risk of attracting any copyright claims. Find out how.

How to Get Royalty Free Music For Your YouTube Videos

Copyright claims and the effect they have on your ability to monetize your content on YouTube is one of the most asked questions we receive at vidIQ. And I think the reason for that is because YouTube itself doesn’t provide a definitive answer.

Also, if you apply for the YouTube Partner Program and are rejected, YouTube doesn’t give you a thorough enough explanation as to why which also adds to the confusion, if in fact, you do have a strike or claim against one of your videos.

When a creator uses content without the permission of the owner of that content, the creator runs the risk of violating copyright laws.

Now, fair use aside (read more about that defence in the 

expert's guide to fair use & copyright on YouTube

), let's just say you are guilty of using another person's work. YouTube handles this in two different ways: copyright claims and copyright strikes.

When you receive a copyright claim, YouTube, as a third party, is basically saying that you the creator, can use the copyright owner’s content, but the owner of that copyrighted content has the right to place adverts on your video and earn income from it.

In this case, you the creator are not punished for uploading the content that doesn’t belong to you, but you won’t generate any revenue from that upload.

A copyright claim is a lot better than receiving a copyright strike. A strike means the owner of the I.P. you are using (whether that’s a video clip, an image, or audio) isn't playing ball at all. If the owner asserts their rights to their own content, your video will be removed from your channel and you will also receive a copyright strike.

Three copyright strikes and your channel will be terminated. And it might not end there either. In extreme cases, you could find yourself in legal hot water and have to defend yourself in court.

Copyright laws are complicated. To quickly get up to speed on the basics, take time to watch the video below. It’s old in YouTube years but is still one of the very best explanations we’ve seen on the subject:

There are a few more things to clarify. Your channel doesn’t have to be monetized in order to receive copyright claims and copyright strikes.

Even if you have zero subscribers, zero views and it's your very first video, if you have used copyrighted content belongs to another creator, you could get a claim or a strike.

Also, there is no guidebook or directory that's going to tell you whether or not you will get a copyright claim or a copyright strike. You need to use your common sense.

The YouTube copyright system isn't something that you can hack, and it's not a game to be played with. If your mindset is, I know the risks, I'm going to use somebody else’s content anyway because I just want to monetize some of mine, then you're probably going to run into problems.

Having said that, there are many creators who’ve probably use copyrighted content unintentionally and now they're worried about whether or not their entire channel is going to be affected when it comes to applying for monetization. So let's look at what YouTube does tell us about applying for the 

The first one being the review process. If you just needed 

1000 subscribers and 4000 hours of Watch Time

, all of this will be very simple. But to monetize your channel, you also need to comply with YouTube's community guidelines, Terms of Service, copyright guidelines, and Google's ad policies.

Now that's a lot of complicated stuff and requires human input which is why each channel that applies for the YouTube Partner Program must be assessed by a human reviewer, as the platform makes clear:

Not to give humankind a bad rap here but we're not perfect, were rarely consistent and we can't do absolutely everything all at once. Now, of course, a human is going to follow a set of guidelines and protocols from YouTube, and they look something like this:

It's not a complete list of everything that YouTube will review on your channel, but when it comes to the question of copyright affecting your application, ‘

’ are probably the two biggest red flags.

For example, let's say you've made 10 videos on your channel and just one of those videos has a copyright claim but that single video accounts for 60% of your Watch Time because it went viral, thanks to the copyright content within that video.

In that case, have you really reached 4000 hours of Watch Time within the spirit of the YouTube monetization program?

On the other hand, let's say a creator has hundreds of videos on their channel and four or five of them have copyright claims but those videos account for just 20 to 30 hours of the channels total Watch Time. The human reviewer at YouTube is probably going to recognize that as nothing to be too concerned about.

__And just to be clear, this is hypothetical, I'm not saying this as fact, I'm just putting myself in YouTube shoes. __

Now some may argue what's wrong with using copyrighted content on my channel. I'm not monetized, but it allows you to put adverts on my videos so that YouTube earns money from it. While in the short term that may be true and it will earn YouTube a few extra bucks, in the long term it degrades the credibility of the platform.

So if you have a copyright claim or a copyright strike on your channel, will you be rejected for monetization? No, but bear in mind copyright strikes are serious offenses.

If your channel has no copyright claims, and no copyright strikes, you'll automatically be accepted into the YouTube Partner Program. Again, no because you've also got to consider all of the other community guidelines you need to adhere to.

As always, when it comes to YouTube, it's never a black or white answer, but let's fast forward to the worst-case scenario. You know, you've got copyright claims on your channel, you apply for monetization and you're rejected. What happens next?

Well, there is a silver lining. You can reapply, but it gets awkward. If you use someone else's content enough to annoy YouTube, they will reject your application via email with the headline reason of either duplication or reuse content.

The frustrating problem from the creator’s point of view is that YouTube won't tell you specifically what's wrong with your channel. They will list a certain video that needs to be removed or tell you that you need to get rid of some copyright claimed videos. You have to work it out. And then 30 days after you were rejected, you can reapply.

If you want to more insights into YouTube then make sure to download vidIQ. Over 1 million creators use vidIQ to help with keyword and competitor research, channel audits, and so much more. 

And if you’re serious about growing your YouTube views and subscribers, sign up for exclusive access to the 

. Learn how to launch a successful YouTube Channel in just 30 days.

If you have a copyright claim or a copyright strike against any of your videos, will you still be able to apply for the YouTube Partner Program and monetize your content? Find out now.

Can I Still Monetize My YouTube Channel If I have a Copyright Claim?

As a YouTube creator you have a huge number of things to take into consideration - your video and audio set up, 

, thumbnail design, content ideas, and SEO for example. But there’s another piece of the puzzle that all creators have to consider - the legal side of content creation.

On this episode of TubeTalk we’ll focus on the legal aspect to brand and sponsorship deals. We’re joined by 

, an attorney who specializes in intellectual property law and contract law. What a perfect guest to discuss the legal issues that every YouTuber should be aware of. In this podcast you will learn:

How to protect yourself as a YouTuber in a brand deal

Why a solid contract is the basis of every successful brand deal

How to ensure you receive the money you were promised

Why US YouTubers need to set up an LLC to protect their personal liability

That, yes, even if you are a single creator, you need a legal entity behind you

What an operating agreement is and why it's so important

What are the rules of 'Fair Use' when using other people's content

What 'Intellectual Property' is and how it's protected

Subscribe to TubeTalk: The Video Marketing Podcast!

TubeTalk has been informing video creators and marketers since 2014, and is one of the most respected and listened to podcasts in the online video industry. Subscribe today so you never miss an episode! You can find vidIQ's TubeTalk at:

The Legal Issues All YouTube Creators Need to Know About: Podcast Snapshot

Liron Segev: What do all YouTubers need to understand about contracts?

 Nobody looks at a contract when everything's going well. It's only when things go wrong that everybody scurries around and tries to find a copy of the document to read it. You know what contracts really are in a nutshell are the rules for what happens when things go wrong. You have to make contracts your policy. Do not deviate from that. No handshake deals.

Liron Segev: You are an expert in intellectual property law, can you take us through the meaning of ‘Fair Use’ when it comes to using content that you didn’t create yourself?

 First thing to mention, since this is an international audience, is that fair use is not a thing everywhere in the world. Don't assume that just because you understand what fair use is or you think you understand what fair use is in the United States, that it's going to fly everywhere. That's the first one.

The second one is fair use is always going to be interpreted in the most conservative manner. Just because you slapped a filter on a painting of a storm trooper pointing his finger at you saying, "I want you for the Imperial Navy." Does not mean that that's a fair use of Disney's intellectual property. Just because you didn't get a cease and desist from Disney doesn't mean you are not exposing yourself to risk.

There's a four prong test for whether use is fair. There's commerciality, the amount and the extent of the stuff you take. Did you take the heart of something? Did you take a bunch of it or do you just take a couple of little pieces?

There's also a piece that deals with the effect on the market. For example, no one is going to walk into a supermarket looking for some soup and walk out with Andy Warhol's Campbell soup cans. There's no effect. There's no market effect on that use. That's another way we check to see if use is fair.

Now, the most common ways that we figure out whether use is fair or not, is to determine whether there's a educational exception, a parody and satire exception and a news based exception.

Regarding the educational based exception, If I am teaching you either remotely or in person, I can use pieces of other people's intellectual property to teach you about that intellectual property. That's why documentaries work. I don't need to go get Disney's permission to do a documentary on Disney. They're probably going to sue me anyway but if I'm smart, I bought a rider on my insurance policy to defend myself against a frivolous lawsuit by Disney.

Liron Segev: Can I take a Taylor Swift song and create my own version of that? Then things are just not so clear anymore.

 That last sentence is exactly it. If you take nothing away from this part of the conversation, understand that fair use is always a question of law. Whenever anyone says to you, I have a right to fair use, you know they're full of crap.

There's no such thing as a right to fair use. What you have is assert an exception to someone's absolute right to control their intellectual property. And you can always, always, always, always be dragged into court and forced to prove that your use is fair and that's usually a losing prospect because if you're a small business, great, you've spent $20,000 to have a court decide this use is fair.

Go ahead. Where are you going to get that $20,000 back? You're not, you just blew it. It's gone.

*Liron Segev: With fair use, who needs to prove that?

 The onus is on the user - to prove the use is fair. Disney does not have to prove that they own that content, you have to prove that the use of it is fair. Of course, they also have to prove they own they do that by submitting to YouTube a copy of the trademark filing or the copyright filing.

The way that this is applicable to content creators is that I see people use clips of stock footage or background music and I know those things aren't licensed. I recognize songs every now and again and I'm confident beyond doubt that this person did not license a that song for their content.

Odds are good if you're flying under the radar, nothing's going to happen to you but the problem is once you start to grow your business and hopefully that's what you're trying to do, you are no longer going to be flying under the radar and that strategy is not going to wor. Quite frankly, it's going to hurt you because if you're trying to get a brand deal, that brand is going to make you sign a contract that says you have properly licensed or own every single thing in that piece of content and they're going to require you to go out and get errors and omissions insurance. Here's how that works. If you lie, not only are you in breach of your contract.

Liron Segev: Let’s talk about intellectual property and trademarks

 Here is the best way to understand copyright and trademark in 30 seconds. Think about what the words mean. Copy right. It is the right to make copies of something. If you have the copyright, you and only you have the right to make copies of it or to authorize someone else to make copies of it.

Trademark is exactly what the word says as well. It is the mark of your trade. The Nike swoosh is a mark of the trade.

If you take only one thing away from this section, it is be really careful about using other people's intellectual property in your content unless you have permission.

Liron Segev: I'd love to hear your legal disclaimer right about now I just want to make sure we're above board and people do not misunderstand what we're saying in this podcast.

 Absolutely. There's two parts. The first part is the legal disclaimer. I am not your attorney. You should not rely on my advice to your detriment or otherwise based on anything you hear today. If you really need help in this area, I'm happy to have you as a client if you'd like to hire me but please seek a legal professional to help you. Don't try to do this on your own or Google it. I can't tell you the amount of people I've had to explain, well I'm sorry, your Google search is not the equivalent of my law degree.

Liron Segev: If people want to get more information, what's the best way to do this?

 then make sure to download vidIQ. Join over 1 million other users and use vidIQ to help you research YouTube, analyze videos, audit your own channel, and take actionable steps 

 and learn how to launch a successful YouTube Channel in just 30 days.

If you are publishing content on YouTube you need to know about copyright law, and if you are working with a brand you need to know about contracts. We discuss both in this week's TubeTalk.

The Legal Issues All YouTube Creators Need to Know About: TubeTalk 205 with Seth Polansky

, Fortnite is one of the most popular and most influential Battle Royale games in the world. Now, Epic Games has just released its 12.0 update which finally adds an option to mute potentially copyrighted audio clips.

In a Tweet, Epic confirmed that the update will allow gamers to mute licenced emote audio, a feature that will help solve the copyright strikes gamers have been experiencing as they stream or upload Fortnite to YouTube:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">PC Players: In the 12.00 update, we&#39;ve added the ability to mute Licensed Emote Audio. This option is available in the game&#39;s Audio settings. <a href="https://t.co/UHGYAlXKgH">pic.twitter.com/UHGYAlXKgH</a></p>&mdash; Fortnite Status (@FortniteStatus) <a href="https://twitter.com/FortniteStatus/status/1230163848088428544?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 19, 2020</a></blockquote>

Fortnite and Copyright Claims: Why Muting Audio is a Big Deal

The ability to mute certain audio clips will be a huge benefit to creators who upload Fortnite gameplay content to YouTube. There have been a number of gamers who have been hit 

 from music publishers for using licensed music from the game, albeit unintentionally.

YouTube’s ContentID system can easily identify any audio files protected by those publishers, triggering a claim against any creator who uses even a few seconds of the track in their content. Many gamers on YouTube have monetized their gameplay content, so to be hit with a copyright strike can be a devastating blow.

Did you know that while Epic Games has licensed any audio featured in the game itself, those licenses only cover the playing of that song or backing track within the game itself. It doesn’t extend to any streaming or uploads of the game on social video platforms like YouTube.

Gamers who publish video content about Fortnite that feature any audio leave themselves wide open to claims from the original rights holder, and that’s why so many videos have been flagged.

New Fortnite Rickroll Emote: Famous Meme Can be Silenced

In the ever-changing Fortnite eco-system, new features are constantly being introduced, and very recently, players were blessed with a brand new emote inspired by the legendary Rickrolling meme. The in-game character dances along to the Rick Astley banger “

” just like Rick himself, and is available from Fortnite for 500 V-Bucks (around $5).

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I liked a video on YouTube: Watch How This Bear Made The Unlikeliest Of Friends <a href="https://t.co/iQDd9tB0e9">https://t.co/iQDd9tB0e9</a></p>&mdash; Fortnite (@FortniteGame) <a href="https://twitter.com/FortniteGame/status/1228468970208088064?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 15, 2020</a></blockquote>

The new emote is one of the first to incorporate such a famous song, and Epic has ensured full licensing rights around its usage within the game. But that didn’t stop the first wave of gamers from getting hit with copyright claims from the start.

The good news is that Epic has released a patch to PC users which allows those gamers to mute the Astley track before publishing or streaming any gameplay content that features it online. The 12.00 patch allows creators to mute the emote, this avoiding potentially revenue-hitting copyright claims.

# How to Mute Copyrighted Music on Fortnite

With the new patch, players should click on the "Licensed Emote Audio" option within their settings, then either confirm the option to mute all copyrighted music, or just mute other players who are using it.

This new setting isn’t just aimed at silencing the new meme-inspired emote though. Epic confirmed that it will give players the ability to mute all licensed audio going forward.

Right now the patch is only available to PC users, but Epic has promised to (Rick) roll-out the feature to consoles soon.

Gamers who upload or stream Fortnite content to YouTube have been having issues with copyright claims over licensed music within the game. Now Epic has a solution that could tackle that tricky issue.

Fortnite to Allow Gamers to Mute Emotes to Avoid Copyright Strikes

Creators can run into all sorts of problems regarding copyright issues on YouTube if they don't fully understand the licensing rules behind using audio, images, or other video content created by others.

There a million reasons why YouTubers shouldn't use ANY content that wasn't created by themselves or their teams or wasn't properly licensed through the official channels. And no, '

' isn't always a viable defense, and neither is pasting a 'this content doesn't belong to me' disclaimer into your YouTube description. If you're using content for your own videos and haven't obtained permission from the rightful owner you are in for a world of pain.

Repeat offenders (those with three copyright strikes) face the termination of their channel, a catastrophic blow for any creator who has put the time and effort into building YouTube views, engagement, and subscriber growth.

For every creator who deliberately uploads content that either doesn’t belong to them or isn’t properly licensed, there are, of course, other creators who believe they are acting in good faith. The good news is that YouTube recognizes that and alongside the 

, the platform is introducing an awesome new tool to the new Studio dashboard.

New YouTube Copyright Tool: Assisted Trim

In an update to the new YouTube Studio, the platform has rolled out a tool called 

, which aims at providing creators with a quick and easy solution to a copyright claim. In a 

, YouTube confirmed the tool will allow creators to remove a copyrighted section of a video without having to take the whole video down. That's awesome news for anyone who has received a claim because of music or a TV show playing in the background, or because they used a small clip of media that wasn't actually theirs to use.

This new feature will highlight the segment of the video directly relating to the claim, offering the creator the opportunity to remove it and release the claim against that segment.

YouTube also provided a handy visual clue as to the three ways creators can remove any copyright-claimed segments. You'll have the choice of trimming the offending clip, muting any audio that is in dispute, or replacing the audio portion entirely with a new (licensed or license-free) song or backing track:

Of course, trimming a segment out of a video can lead to nasty-looking edit, but YouTube confirmed it's working on "adjustable endpoints" for claimed content within the Assisted Trim tool. This feature should give the creator the means to provide a much more polished final product once the claimed content has been removed.

Alongside this nifty new tool, YouTube also confirmed other changes to how creators can manage copyright claims in the New Studio. Channel owners will be able to access more information about any copyright strikes straight from the YouTube Studio dashboard, including:

Which party submitted the copyright takedown notice

The actions you need to take to resolve the strike

YouTube will also provide the creator with the specific description of the copyrighted work as provided by the claimant of that work. The platform also promises many more updates to come in 2020 regarding copyright claims and how to resolve (and avoid) them.

Want to know more? Take a look at the video below:

YouTube has a new tool that allows creators to quickly remove any content that's subject to a copyright claim without having to take their whole video down.

How to Manage Copyright Claims in the New YouTube Studio

So you've created some videos, and they all live happily on your YouTube channel. Then you notice that somebody else has taken your work and used it on their own channel, claiming fair use. Are they actually allowed to do that?

Can you take somebody else's music and use it in the background of your videos as long as you credit them in the description? Do you really know your rights when it comes to your content and what you can and cannot do?

On today's episode of TubeTalk, we talk to one of the online video industry’s leading expert on digital rights management, Rian Bosak from 

. Rian really understands content creators, really understands 

 and knows how to get those rights back to the rightful owner so the rightful owner can actually make money off the hard work they’ve poured into their content. In this podcast you will learn:

How creators can protect their ownership of video content

Why many creators are missing out on revenue due to copyright violations

The Expert's Guide to Fair Use on YouTube: Full Transcript

Rian Bosak:	Thank you for having me. I'm super excited to be here.

Liron Segev:	Okay, so Rian, let's start at the top. I upload my video onto YouTube. I own that video. I own that information. It's my intellectual property. Is that where we start?

Rian Bosak:	Yeah, I think that's right. I mean, I think one of the most basic things that the content creators need to understand is just what their rights are, when they own rights, what they have to do to own those rights, and kind of where that starting point is.

So, look, anytime you create something and put it into a fixed transferable format, you own a copyright. You don't have to register that copyright so there is no requirement to go to the US copyright registry office and register your content there. Once you put it into a fixed format you have created a copyright and you can do what you want with that copyright. You can sell it to someone else, you can upload it to a digital platform and put it out to the world for everyone to see. But it's really important to understand that that is a thing for you as soon as you have created something unique that you own.

Liron Segev:	Okay. So it's effectively like owning a physical thing that I could lease it out if I want to. I could give it to you to destroy. It's my choice to do with it as I please, since it belongs to me.

Liron Segev:	Okay. So now that we understand that, so I have a piece of content, I've shot my YouTube video, I uploaded it, I gave it a beautiful title and a thumbnail and all that good stuff. And then I put it out into the world. Now I still own it and if other people go ahead and share that on my behalf, I'm totally okay with it and they're not infringing on any right. In fact, we encourage them to do that. That's correct?

Rian Bosak:	Yeah, absolutely. I mean, if you want to allow people to repurpose your content, that is completely within your jurisdiction to do so.

Liron Segev:	But now we have a situation where people are maybe reacting to my content or maybe they take a piece of my content and they add commentary to that. What happens in that case?

Rian Bosak:	So this really gets into a lot of what fair use is meant to address, right? And let me give the caveat before I start down that path. Look, fair use is really up to a judge to decide. It's a defense that someone can use against a claim of copyright infringement. And if you're going to argue a fair use defense, you should always consult your lawyer prior to doing that.

That's a really important piece. It's extremely complex. There's four points to it and there's kind of a certain type of content that really fair use was meant to allow for, which is news, nonprofit, education, those sorts of things that it's harder for those type of companies to come up with the money to be licensing content, whereas if you're doing it for commercial purposes, that's a very different use of content.

So, look, when it comes to a lot of react channels, I mean, they're all over YouTube, right? Like you've seen thousands of these things. In large part they don't really fall under the exclusions for fair use. They're not really transformative. They're not really adding anything. I mean, most of the react channels that are out there kind of have an intro of somebody saying, "What's up, guys? You've been asking me forever to react to this video. So today I've got creator X, Y and Z's video up for you, and let's just hop into it."

And then they play the entirety of the video, which gets into one of the four points of fair use, which is, amounts to substantiality of the work taken. And over the course of the video they'll just be like, "Oh, wow. Oh, that's crazy. Oh man, I love that thing."

And then they come to the tail end of the video and they wrap it up with, "Well, guys, well, that video was great. Make sure that you leave a comment below about what you thought about my reaction or what you thought about the video. Smash that like button and subscribe. Let me know what you want me to react to next and I'll see you guys next time." Right?

Rian Bosak:	So, this gets into, again, the four points of fair use. What's the purpose and character of the use? Oftentimes these are people that are trying to create new content off of existing content and create a commercial base for themselves, which kind of puts everything into a little bit of a wonky balance, the nature of the copyrighted work. So was the work that you originally took out for commercial purposes? If that was out for commercial purposes and your content is out for commercial purposes, that puts them really opposed to each other.

The big question, like I said earlier, is what is the amount of substantiality of the content that has been used? If you've used the entire video and reacted to the whole video, it provides the question, "Okay, if someone were to consume your piece of content, would they need to go back and consume the other piece of content?" Which the answer, if you've used all of it, is probably no.

Which gets to the fourth point of fair use, which is effective use upon the potential market. So, basically by creating this piece of content, you've removed the need for someone else to go consume that content. So, in large part, react videos don't really fit under what fair use was meant to address kind of for all of those purposes.

Now there are ways in which react content can lean more towards fair use if you really are adding to the conversation about it, if you're using limited portions of the piece of content to illustrate the point you're trying to make. If you're talking about how that piece of content reflects on public affairs that are going on or that sort of thing, that can lean you more towards it being fair use.

But again, as I said when we first started this was, keep in mind this is a defense, right? So if somebody thinks that you've infringed on their copyrights, you can say that this is fair use and talk about that in a discussion with them that ultimately is really on a judge to decide if it were to get to that level of being litigated.

Liron Segev:	So the onus is on who to prove that it's fair use. Is it on me, as the person using that content reacting, or is it on the original content creator to say, "This person has used my content."

Rian Bosak:	Yeah. So, in a fair use defense, the onus is really on you to take whatever you have created. So if it's a react video, take your react video, hold it against these four points of fair use, and try to articulate why it would fit that legal exclusion under the copyright law.

Liron Segev:	Okay. So, let's just go through those four points one more time. What are the four points?

Rian Bosak:	Yeah, so the four factors of fair use are:

The amount and substantiality of the portion taken

The effect upon the potential market for the original content

All of those things really have to be balanced and factored together. There's no one smoking gun that creates it as a strong case for fair use. You really have to measure it against all four things and take that into consideration when you're trying to assess if your content could fit the legal exclusion for fair use. These are super complicated.

I mean, if you were to start to unpack some of the cases that have been litigated, it gets muddy really quick and even different judges have fallen on different sides on the same points of this.

So it really depends again, how much did you use? Was it really transformative? Did you really take this thing and talk about it and use it to illustrate an original idea or point that you have that you're trying to make?

Liron Segev:	Okay. Okay. So, it's not as simple as one, two, three and four, when I've got three out of the four, therefore I'm perfectly fine. What tools do we have at our disposal for this?

Rian Bosak:	For the standard content creator most people have is some ability inside of Video Manager to locate copies of their content. That's the very base level service that YouTube offers. And if you can do that from your Video Manager, it's what's called Content ID Light. It is a version of Content ID, which Content ID is a product that YouTube created back and launched in 2007 that allows you to deliver reference files to YouTube or copies of your videos that help you scale this intellectual property management.

Liron Segev:	Is that almost like a fingerprint of your particular copy that you know that that's your original content that you uploaded?

Rian Bosak:	Yeah, exactly. It's an exact copy into a separate server at YouTube that basically you can define to YouTube how you want copies of that content to behave. And that can be to monetize the content, track the content, block the content, or take down the content.

Now to be clear on takedowns, I think there's a big misperception that YouTube is issuing these takedowns, and this is done by "copyright parts" which is not the case in particular with takedowns. Takedowns actually require you, even when you have access to more product functionality, to fill out a form and actually issue that copyright strike. So that process can't be automated. But discovery under different policy types actually can be automated and then content is reviewed and a decision is made as to whether it matches your reference file or not, but at a manual level.

Liron Segev:	I don't have to do anything extra. In other words, if I upload my video onto YouTube, do they kind of get that fingerprint Content ID? Do they create that at that point, or do I have to go into another system and tell them, "Hey, this belongs to me."

Rian Bosak:	There's really two systems, right? One is, if you're an individual creator, there is this... you may or may not have access to it. Not everybody has access to this so it's something that you can apply for and YouTube decides, but this ability to kind of find some content.

Or, there are companies like SuperBam that can actually help you deliver full reference files into the system and have access to even more functionality that YouTube provides called manual claiming where we can help manage our copyrights on the YouTube platform.

Liron Segev: So if I'm just using the default set of tools, I may or may not have the system in my Video Manager in the New Studios, no longer Studio Beta, luckily. In the new Studio I am going to the copyright option and see if somebody else has used my content and then give them an option to either email them and ask them to remove it or issue them the notice to get off the system. However, that's not going to get everything, right?

Rian Bosak:	Yeah, no. So, Content ID definitely has some restrictions mostly based around time code. So if the match isn't long enough, Content ID won't find it. And that's why in really a robust rights management strategy, you also need to have human beings that are looking for more of your content trying to find it out there.

Liron Segev:	Okay, so now we're moving towards the SuperBam arena where, if I am maybe not an individual creator, maybe I'm part of a bigger corporate or maybe I'm in the music industry and everything is royalties and I need to be able to be paid out and pay my artist out, I'm not going to just rely on the default tools. SuperBam really is going to come in and help me in this particular case, right?

Rian Bosak:	Yeah, exactly. That's exactly what we do. So we do both sides of it where we both deliver your reference files into the system and then we have a team of people who search for more of the content and where we find that content we're able to place claims on it.

And usually you need to use manual claiming for instances where people are doing compilation videos or maybe short form clips that really don't fit the exclusion for fair use or any of the other legal exclusions that we wouldn't claim a video for. There's quite a bit of that. So it's really important that you do have both sides of it to be properly managing your copyrights.

Liron Segev:	Okay. So this is getting more in depth. With all your years of doing that and with your customer base, have you found content landing up in weird and wonderful places that we definitely would have missed if we just did our own search?

Rian Bosak:	Yeah, all the time. Again, talking about compilation videos, you see so many compilation videos out there, whether it's stuff like FailArmy where it's just a bunch of Fail videos or People Are Awesome. Those are properties that are owned by Jukin, so those are all licensed videos.

But so many other people take that type of content and repurpose it in their own version of something like that, and then blast it all over the internet, not just on YouTube, but onto Facebook and Instagram and Twitter, literally any platform they can get their hands on trying to build an audience off of that stuff.

Liron Segev:	Well, and monetize, I suppose, as well.

Rian Bosak:	Yeah. I mean most frequently these people are doing this to monetize, whether it's native on the YouTube channel that they're trying to build or they're using that as leverage to push to a website or something else, that's how people tend to repurpose content.

Liron Segev:	If I'm your client, would you come to me and say, "Look, we discovered your content here, here and here. What do you want to do?" What are my options?

Have you ever uploaded a video to YouTube then found other creators using your work as their own? In this week's episode of TubeTalk we talk to Rian Bosak about copyright and Fair Use on YouTube.

YouTube Telif Hakkı

How to Get Royalty Free Music For Your YouTube Videos

Carla Marshall

Can I Still Monetize My YouTube Channel If I have a Copyright Claim?

Carla Marshall

The Legal Issues All YouTube Creators Need to Know About: TubeTalk 205 with S...

Liron Segev

Fortnite to Allow Gamers to Mute Emotes to Avoid Copyright Strikes

Carla Marshall

How to Manage Copyright Claims in the New YouTube Studio

Carla Marshall

The Expert's Guide to Fair Use & Copyright on YouTube: TubeTalk 195 with Rian...

Liron Segev

The Truth About Using Cover Songs in Your YouTube Videos

Carla Marshall

How to Get The Best, Free Music For YouTube [Royalty Free!]

Rob Wilson

Can You Use Copyrighted Music For Your YouTube Videos?

Carla Marshall

YouTube Telif Hakkı Eşleştirme Aracını Kullanma 2019

Rob Wilson