Avoiding copyright claims on youtube

[vivafruit]

I feel like this is a big problem for aspiring AMV creators trying to post stuff on Youtube, and I was interested if people could link me to some wisdom on avoiding it. To start discussion, I will share what I've figured out through painful trial and error and reading around:

- Be careful of clips that are 30 seconds or longer. It seems like a lot of copyright holders have the algorithm search for long clips, but are okay with short ones.

- I don't think simple tricks like flipping the video or applying a color filter especially help. Google's copyright algorithms seem pretty strong at detecting copyrighted material anyway.

- Don't bother with "I do not own this content" or "No copyright infringement intended". For one thing most of the filtering is done by bots that aren't going to read that, haha. But for another thing the copyright holders are soulless corporations and don't especially care about what you intended to do or not. It won't help.

- It seems like movies are more heavily enforced than TV series. Movies that Disney owns the rights to are especially dangerous.

- This is sort of a double edged sword, but be careful about putting searchable terms in your AMV. I had an AMV with "Ponyo" in the title for some reason. It had about 20 seconds of Ponyo in the entire video. But eventually the video was taken down because of the Ponyo clip. If I had not put a searchable Disney-owned movie in the title of my AMV, it would still probably be up.

- Don't worry much about using copyrighted music. It seems like most music copyright holders just take over the monetization. You probably weren't going to make any money on this AMV, and it wouldn't be ethical to make money anyway, since you're using copyrighted material, haha.

That's all I've got. I'd love if other people posted their experiences with dodging copyright claims and strikes.

[seasons]

- Be careful of clips that are 30 seconds or longer. It seems like a lot of copyright holders have the algorithm search for long clips, but are okay with short ones.

This is a good rule to follow, although your AMV can still be detected even if it's composed solely of much shorter clips than this. Obviously, unless it's a scene that really fits the song/your concept/syncs to the music in some meaningful way, it's generally not a good idea to use clips this long. Plus, your video is a lot less likely to be detected and flagged. That said, it's still not a guarantee.

Music is hit or miss. I had a video that was up for about six years that was eventually flagged and taken down for violating music copyright (and it was not a super popular artist or well known song at all, far from it). I appealed that and was never challenged on it again, but I believe that if the copyright holders wanted it muted or taken down, it would have been within their rights to do so.

I wish there was a set of guidelines or rules you could follow to try to give yourself a reasonable assurance that your video won't be taken down, but one can never be 100% sure. It really sucks but that's how it goes.

[Spotofbluepaint]

Hi all, I'm new here and could use some help with YouTube. I made my very first AMV. I uploaded it to YouTube and it was taken down within 2 days. It's a character profile of Zuko from Avatar the Last Airbender. None of my clips are even remotely close to even 10, or even 5 seconds long. None of the audio from the show is in it since all audio is completely from the song I chose. Perhaps the issue was my title "Zuko AMV Run Boy Run."

What are your recommendations? Do I just re-post it up with a new title? Do I appeal even though I'm sure there's no way I can win an appeal? What to you guys do when your videos are taken down?

[vivafruit]

Hi all, I'm new here and could use some help with YouTube. I made my very first AMV. I uploaded it to YouTube and it was taken down within 2 days. It's a character profile of Zuko from Avatar the Last Airbender. None of my clips are even remotely close to even 10, or even 5 seconds long. None of the audio from the show is in it since all audio is completely from the song I chose. Perhaps the issue was my title "Zuko AMV Run Boy Run."

What are your recommendations? Do I just re-post it up with a new title? Do I appeal even though I'm sure there's no way I can win an appeal? What to you guys do when your videos are taken down?

I missed this, sorry. Just in case he checks back, or if someone else has the same question: once it gets taken down, I think you're just shit outta luck. Don't bother appealing, it's a waste of time. Don't repost it to youtube, you'll just get another strike. Notably Avatar is a western show, so the copyright owners are (apparently) more stringent than if you used an anime source. I would recommend:

- Hosting on vimeo
- Hosting on pornhub (serious suggestion)
- Hosting on google drive
- Hosting here on a-m-v.org

You're not going to get the clicks that you would from hosting on youtube, but that's just the way the cookie crumbles I guess.

[the Black Monarch]

I've seen music labels enforce their copyrights a LOT more aggressively than movie studios. I've also seen a proliferation of videos that incorporate waaaaay too much dialog and other noise from the video source. I have to wonder if maybe there's a connection there, like changing the audio in that way makes the videos less likely to get flagged by bots?

[seasons]

I would recommend:

- Hosting here on a-m-v.org

For a video solely made with Avatar the Last Airbender, I don't think this would be an option.

Vimeo, on the other hand, is worth a try. Odds of a takedown are lower (somewhere between 1% and 99% lower, your mileage may vary). At the very least, you'll be able to post it on social media or in Discord. It's not a terrible outcome.