When YouTube Says You Aren’t “Ad-Friendly”

YouTube Diaries, 6 of 6 For the past few weeks, I’ve been using my experiences as a new YouTube creator to write about intellectual property and copyright management. Everything I’ve learned about YouTube and copyright has come from making my videos available for YouTube’s display-ads and then dealing with the various copyright claims and revenue-sharing agreements that…

Covers of Covers of Covers… – YouTube Diaries 5 of 6

The past few weeks in the YouTube Diaries series have mostly featured something that happened to me on YouTube and my analysis of it relative to issues of copyright and intellectual property. This week, while we’re on the same topic, I won’t be discussing difficulties that I’ve had, exactly, but rather on some broad quandaries concerning…

Global Flows & Colliding Copyright Regimes, YouTube Diaries 4 of 6

In the last YouTube Diaries post, I discussed how companies leverage YouTube’s Content ID to siphon ad revenue from creators who may not have the knowledge or ability to dispute their bogus copyright claims. Though it’s unlikely that the claims are made actively, Content ID incentivizes large companies to simply dump their entire libraries into…

A Plague of Opportunistic Claims – YouTube Diaries 3 of 6

Last week, I shared how my cover of Usher and Alicia Keys’ “My Boo” was blocked in the United States. I took the opportunity both to discuss how YouTube’s “Content ID” algorithms for recognizing copyrighted content worked and to share how you can sometimes apply the Fair Use doctrine to dispute copyright claims made against your…

All’s Fair (Use) in Love & War – YouTube Diaries 2 of 6

Last week, I introduced you to how I set up my channel and how it runs up against YouTube’s intellectual property management system, Content ID. I left you on a bit of a cliffhanger, with my cover of Usher and Alicia Keys’ “My Boo” getting banned in the U.S. (but available for revenue sharing everywhere…

Copyrights & Algorithms – YouTube Diaries 1 of 6

For just over a year, I’ve been growing my YouTube channel, which features me playing a collection of American chart toppers, Vietnamese pop classics, and Vietnamese traditional songs on the one-string monochord, “đàn bầu.” The experience has been artistically satisfying, but analytically, the most intriguing aspects have been the insights gained into the nuts-and-bolts of the YouTube…