As you've probably noticed already, my YouTube channel Synth Heaven (https://www.youtube.com/@SynthHeavenOfficial) is not available anymore because of 3 copyright strikes sent the same month by the same channel, CGMeetup. If you aren't familiar with YouTube, 3 copyright strikes within a certain period (3 months) = termination of the channel and the associated YouTube account.
Since I've invested a lot of time and efforts in my channel (more than 400 videos, representing several years of work), I'd like to take the time to explain exactly what happened and why I am so frustrated right now because I really think that I've been the fool in this story.
First of all, let me explain some of the basics from YouTube (you can skip this part if you have your own YouTube channel and/or are familiar with copyright strikes). When you upload a video on YouTube, the video will be automatically analized by bots, or computer algorythms. These bots will basically check two things: the audio part and the video part.
The audio part usually won't be a problem because from my personal experience at least, most artists/labels allow you to use their music on YouTube. I have posted videos from more than 250 artists on my channel and have never received a single copyright strike for the audio. In some rare cases, the audio has been muted in a few selected countries (mainly Russia), but that was the same case for the official videos because of distribution rights. And as far as audio detection is concerned, I must say that the YT bots always did their job and have always identified the songs properly.
It's much more complicated for the video part and as you will see later on, that explains why my channel has been terminated. Unlike the audio part, most labels/artists WON'T allow you to repost their videos. If you try to upload an official video from Depeche Mode for example, the bots will quickly identify it and the video will be blocked directly. Just please note that you won't get a copyright strike for that because the video will be blocked before being posted, and strikes are only for videos who have already been posted on your channel.
That being said, what is a copyright strike exactly and who can issue it ? Here's the answer from YouTube: "A copyright strike is issued when a rights owner requests the legal removal of a video on YouTube because the uploader didn't have permission to use their images, audio, or video clips. If a copyright owner submits a valid DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) complaint through our webform, we take down that video and apply a copyright strike. If a user gets three copyright strikes in 90 days, their account, along with any associated channels, will be terminated."
As you can see, basically anybody can submit a copyright strike but that is not the main problem. The main issue comes from the verification process. Again, here's an excerpt from the YouTube FAQ: "Copyright removal requests are reviewed using a combination of automated systems and human reviewers. Our automated systems use machine learning to process copyright removal requests. The systems are continuously trained on data from previous decisions made by human reviewers, and only process removal requests when there’s a high degree of confidence that the request has all the legally required elements and isn’t abusive. Abusive requests are when someone is intentionally and maliciously attempting to remove content from YouTube through a likely false assertion of copyright ownership. When our automated systems are unsure if the removal request is valid (has all the legally required elements and isn’t abusive), then a trained human reviewer evaluates the request. If they need more information to validate the request, then a human reviewer will email the claimant and ask for more information."
In my case, there hasn't been any human reviewers, the videos have been immediately removed and my account and channel have been terminated before I could even do anything. Those requests were clearly abusive and have been intentionally sent by CGMeetup to shut down my YouTube channel and I will now give you all the details.
First of all, let me show you the email I've received from YouTube:
The email includes the name and url of the videos for which a copyright strike has been sent, the 'copyrighted' content and the name/email of the person who has issued the claim. As you can see from the screenshot, all 3 claims have been sent by the same channel (CGMeetup), even if they have used 2 different email aliases for that (you will notice that there's an extra 'E' in CGMeetup for the first claim). I'm not sure why they've used another alias for the first claim, but that's probably a way to get around the max number of claims they can submit with one account.
Since I had uploaded one of these 3 videos on facebook before my channel got terminated, let me start with this one. This is the video I've posted for Frozen Plasma:
Frozen Plasma - Let It Rain Love
For this video, I have indeed used an animation made by someone else, but only after requesting permission to use it and crediting the proper people in the video description on my channel. The animation is called 'The Wishgranter' and was made in 2016 by students from the Ringling College of Art and Design. The original video can be found here. Since it's a beautiful animation, this video has been posted after on multiple sites/channels, including this one (Mad Artist), this one (willpromusic) and of course also on CGMeetup.
In case it wasn't obvious yet, you probably came to the same conclusion as me: since this video has been made by students from an animation school not related in any way to CG Meetup and since they obviously don't have any kind of exclusivity on the video, why are they issuing a copyright strike for this and why has the claim been automatically accepted without any human reviewer ? Well the answer is obvious as well: CGMeetup did this intentionally because my channel somehow was an obstacle for them and the automated YouTube systems clearly aren't working. Of course the video is the same BUT 1) I had requested and obtained the permission to use it from the REAL owners and 2) The copyright strike has been issued by a channel who doesn't have any kind of rights on the video clip (just because this video is available on their channel doesn't make them the owners of the video).
Needless to say, it is EXACTLY the same thing for the 2 other videos. For the first one, the animation is called 'A Moonlight's Tale' and can be found here (It was made by Ron Spivak, Elena Spina, Andrew Noh, Tony Gaeta & Aarif Attarwala. The video again is available on multiple places and again is not related in any way to CGMeetup) and the second one is called 'Life is Great' and was made by Lightberg Studios.
That's it. 3 copyright strikes sent by a channel who doesn't have any rights on those videos and my channel is being terminated...and I can't do anything about that because the only way to restore my channel and my account is to submit a copyright counter notification. Let me quote the YouTube FAQ again: "If your content was removed due to a copyright removal request and you believe it's because of a mistake or misidentification, you can submit a counter notification. This is a legal request for YouTube to reinstate content that was removed due to a copyright removal request." The only problem is that, in order to do that you need to sign in to YouTube studio...and of course I can't since my account has been disabled :(
So well, you now have the full story and you also know why I won't start a new channel. Why spending again so much time on a channel when it can be taken down so easily by malicious people ? :(
