Understand the copyright claim on your video
Need help understanding a copyright issue with your video? Follow the steps below to learn what you can do to resolve it.
Step 1: Look up the status of your video
Go to your copyright notices and select the text that appears next to your video:
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“Removed (copyright strike)”
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“Matched third-party content”
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“Video blocked in some countries”
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“Video blocked worldwide”
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“Acknowledged third-party content”
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I don’t see the video in my copyright notices.
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I see something else next to my video.
What is a Content ID claim?
If you upload a video that contains copyright-protected material, you could end up with a Content ID claim. These claims are issued by companies that own music, movies, TV shows, video games, or other copyright-protected material.
If you received a copyright strike, this article will not be helpful to you.
Where do I see my Content ID claims?
To see if you have any Content ID claims on your videos, visit the copyright notices section of your Video Manager. In certain cases when your video or account is affected, we may also email you when you get a Content ID claim.
Am I in trouble?
In most cases, getting a Content ID claim isn’t a bad thing for your YouTube channel. It just means, “Hey, we found some material in your video that’s owned by someone else.”
It’s up to copyright owners to decide whether or not others can reuse their original material. In many cases, copyright owners allow the use of their content in YouTube videos in exchange for putting ads on those videos.
However, there are some cases when copyright owners don’t want their material reused:
- Blocking a video: Sometimes, copyright owners may block your video, which means people won’t be able to watch it. They can decide to block your video worldwide or just in certain countries. If your video is blocked worldwide, youraccount standing may be affected, which means you’ll lose access to some YouTube features. Please keep in mind that deleting videos that affect your account standing won’t restore your good standing.
- Muting a video: If your video contains copyright-protected music, the owner may choose to mute it. This means that people can still watch your video, but they won’t be able to hear the soundtrack. This won’t affect your account standing.
- Blocking certain platforms: In some cases, copyright owners may restrict the devices, apps, or websites on which their content can appear. These restrictions won’t change the availability of your video on YouTube.com.
In most cases, you can’t monetize a video that has a Content ID claim. Instead, the copyright owners can choose to monetize your video.
What can I do about this claim?
When you get a Content ID claim, there are a few different things you can do, depending on the situation:
- Acknowledge the claim: If you agree with the claim, you can just acknowledge it and move on. You can always change your mind later if you disagree with the claim.
- Remove the music: If you get a claim for a piece of music in your video, you can try to remove the song without having to edit and upload a new video. Learn more.
- Swap the music: If music in your video is claimed, but you still want to have music in the background, you can swap out your audio track with one of our free-to-use songs. Learn more.
- Share revenue: If you’re a member of our YouTube Partner Program, and you’re performing an eligible song cover, you may be able to share revenue with the music publisher. That way, both of you can earn money on the video! Learn more.
- Dispute the claim: If you have the required rights to use the copyright-protected content in your video, or if you think the system has somehow misidentified your video, you can dispute the claim.
To dispute the claim, go to your copyright notices and click the link to the right of the video’s Edit menu. This will take you to a page with information about what’s been claimed in your video and who claimed it. You’ll also find the option to dispute the claim on this page.
If you dispute a claim without a valid reason, the content owner may choose to take down your video. If this happens, your account will get a copyright strike.
Deleting videos that affect your account standing won’t restore your good standing.
Related topics
Copyright strike basics
If you get a copyright strike, that means your video has been taken down from YouTube because a copyright owner sent us a complete legal request asking us to do so. When a copyright owner formally notifies us that you don’t have their permission to post their content on the site, we’re required by law to take down your upload.
Keep in mind, videos can be removed from the site for different reasons, not all of which are copyright-related. Also, most copyright claims don’t result in a strike. If you’re not sure what’s going on, we have a guide that will help you understand the copyright claim on your video.
What happens to your account when you get a copyright strike?
Receiving a copyright strike will put your account in bad standing and you will lose access to certain YouTube features.
If you receive three copyright strikes, your account will be terminated. All the videos uploaded to your account will be removed. Users with terminated accounts aren’t able to create new accounts.
Where to find information about your strike
You can find any of your videos with copyright strikes in the copyright notices section of your Video Manager, unless you’ve deleted them. Click copyright strike next to your video to learn more about the removal.
Deleting a video with a strike won’t resolve your strike.
How to resolve a copyright strike
There are three ways to resolve a copyright strike.
- Wait for it to expire: A copyright strike will expire in six months as long as you complete Copyright School and receive no additional copyright strikes during that time.
- Get a retraction: You can contact the person who claimed your video and ask them to retract their claim of copyright infringement.
- Submit a counter notification: If your video was mistakenly removed because it was misidentified as infringing, or qualifies as a potential fair use, you may wish to submit a counter notification.
Keep your YouTube account in good standing
Violating our Community Guidelines or copyright policies can affect your account standing. Accounts in bad standing lose access to certain account features and programs. To stay in good standing, your account must have:
- No Community Guidelines strikes
- No copyright strikes
- No more than one video blocked worldwide by Content ID
Check your account standing
You can check your account standing on the Features page, under your Channel Settings.
Penalties that affect your account standing
Community Guidelines strikes
If you receive a Community Guidelines strike and feel that your video was removed in error, you may appeal the strike. The strike will expire in six months.
Copyright strikes
If you receive a copyright strike, you may ask the person who requested removal of your video to retract their claim. If you believe that your video was removed in error, you may submit a counter notification. The strike will expire in six months, as long as you complete Copyright School and don’t receive another copyright strike in that time.
Content ID global blocks
If a copyright owner uses Content ID to claim and block your video worldwide, you’ll be warned that your account is in danger of falling into bad standing. If you receive a second global Content ID block within 30 days, your account will fall into bad standing. The penalty associated with each global block expires after 30 days. If you believe that a video has been blocked in error, you may dispute the associated claim. Keep in mind, invalid disputes can result in copyright strikes.
Deleting videos which put your account in bad standing won’t restore your good standing.
Features available to accounts in good standing
The following YouTube features are among those restricted to users who are in good standing:
- Uploading videos as Unlisted
- Uploading videos that are longer than 15 minutes
- Uploading videos under Creative Commons licenses
- InVideo Programming
- Custom video thumbnails
- Live events and Hangouts on Air
- Appealing rejected Content ID claim disputes
- Sharing Private videos
- YouTube Video Editor
- Interactive Cards
Certain channel features for YouTube creators are also restricted to accounts in good standing.
Accounts in bad standing won’t be able to join the YouTube Partner Program. YouTube partners may have theirmonetization disabled for a different set of reasons.
Please note that for many of these features, good standing is not the only criteria for access. If you’re in good standing and don’t have access to certain features, you may need to verify your account.
Content ID claims on live streams and Hangouts on Air
Content ID scans all live streams and Hangouts on Air for third party content. When Content ID identifies third party content, a placeholder image may replace your live broadcast until Content ID no longer detects third party content. In some cases, it may terminate your live broadcast. Live streams and Hangouts on Air can also be terminated if they receive a copyright strike or a Community Guidelines strike.
If your live stream or Hangout on Air stops, the quickest way to confirm whether you have received either type of strike is to check your Account Standing.
How to tell if Content ID interrupted your live broadcast
If your live broadcast was terminated and you did not receive a strike, Content ID has identified copyrighted content owned by a third party in your video.
Before your live broadcast is terminated or replaced with a still image, you will be warned to stop broadcasting the third-party content our system has identified. If you comply with this warning, your broadcast will be allowed to continue. If you do not, it will be temporarily replaced or terminated, and you may lose access to this feature.
If Content ID terminates three of your live broadcasts within a six-month period, you will lose access to live streaming and Hangouts on Air for six months. You can check the number of live broadcasts blocked by Content ID in your Live Events.
What to do if you believe a Content ID claim was made in error
If you believe the system has misidentified the content in your video, or you are authorized to use the content in a YouTube live stream, you may dispute the claim. You should not dispute Content ID claims unless you have reason to believe they were made in error or are otherwise invalid. You will only be able to dispute a Content ID claim on a live stream if you have archived the video. Please note that YouTube does not mediate copyright disputes.
Please understand that a Content ID claim may interrupt your live broadcast even if you licensed the third-party content in question, or even if you restricted your broadcast to a territory in which you own all the necessary rights. If a third party has claimed the content in your video through Content ID, you may ask the content owner to whitelist your channel to facilitate future live streams and Hangouts on Air.
Dispute a Content ID claim
If you get a Content ID claim on your video that you believe is invalid, you can choose to dispute that claim. When you dispute a Content ID claim, the copyright owner will be notified, and they’ll have 30 days to respond.
If you received a copyright strike, you won’t be able to dispute the claim through the process described below.
Should I dispute?
You can choose to dispute a Content ID claim if you believe the system somehow misidentified your video, or if you have all the rights to use that copyright-protected content.
You may want to learn more about fair use or the public domain before you choose to dispute for either of those reasons.
YouTube can’t help you determine whether you should dispute a claim, so you’ll probably want to seek your own legal advice if you’re still not sure what to do.
If you dispute a claim without a valid reason, the copyright owner may choose to take down your video. If this happens, your account will get a copyright strike.
How to dispute
- Go to the copyright notices section of your Video Manager.
- Click the underlined link to the right of the video’s Edit menu. This will take you to a page with information about what’s been claimed in your video and who claimed it.
- If you believe that this claim was made in error, you can dispute it directly from this page.
If you previously acknowledged that the claim is valid, but have since determined you possess all necessary rights to the content in your video, you can still dispute the claim.
After you submit your dispute, the copyright owner has 30 days to respond. If they don’t respond within 30 days, their claim on your video will expire, and you don’t need to do anything.
There are a few things that the copyright owner can do after you dispute:
- Release the claim: If they agree with your dispute, they can choose to release their claim. If you were previously monetizing the video, your monetization settings will be restored automatically when all claims on your video are released.
- Uphold the claim: If they believe their claim is still valid, they can choose to uphold it. If you feel it was mistakenly upheld, you may be able to appeal their decision.
- Take down your video: They can always choose to remove your video from YouTube, which means you’ll get acopyright strike on your account.
If you’ve already disputed a Content ID claim and feel it was mistakenly upheld by the copyright owner, you may be able to appeal their decision.
If your account is in good standing, you may be able to appeal up to three rejected Content ID claim disputes at a time.
There may be other restrictions that affect your ability to appeal, such as the date of your appeal. You’ll also need to verify your account if you haven’t already done so.
After you appeal a rejected dispute, the copyright owner has 30 days to respond. If they don’t respond within 30 days, their claim on your video will expire, and you don’t need to do anything.
There are a few things that the copyright owner can do after you appeal:
- Release the claim: If they agree with your dispute, they can choose to release their claim, and you don’t need to do anything.
- Take down your video: If they believe their claim is still valid, they must remove your video from YouTube, which mean’s you’ll get a copyright strike on your account. Accounts with three copyright strikes will be terminated.
Because an appeal may initiate the takedown notification and counter notification process, the contact information you provide in the appeal form will be shared with the copyright owner, who may eventually choose to take legal action against you.
If you change your mind, you can take back your appeal after you’ve submitted it. Click cancel appeal on the page where you disputed the claim. Keep in mind, once you cancel your appeal you won’t be able to appeal the claim again.
Remove Content ID claimed songs from my videos (beta)
If your video has matched a content owner’s music through Content ID, there may be restrictions on where and how the video is available, as well as whether you can monetize the video.
In some cases, you can remove this song, and the restrictions that come with it. This can often be done without muting the entire video, so your original audio will remain. Please note that even if you use this tool, you’re still responsible for any use of third-party content that may remain in your videos.
Removing tracks
To remove a track from a video with a copyright claim, go to Video Manager.
Find the video you want to remove a song from. Then, click on the arrow next to Edit and choose Audio.
Click Remove this song, then Save your changes.
This will remove only the claimed audio, leaving other layers of audio intact. If that’s not possible, it will mute the portion of your video where the claimed audio appears. You’ll have to wait for the song erase to complete processing before you’ll know if the song removal was successful. These changes can be undone by clicking “Undo song removal”
Undoing song erasing and replacement
To undo the song removal:
- Find the video in Video Manager
- Click the arrow next to Edit, then Audio
- Click “Undo song removal” at the bottom of the screen
- Click Save
Swap the audio track on your video
The audio swapping tool allows you to add music to your video from a library of licensed songs. Many of these songs are from our free Audio Library, and you may use them in videos that you monetize on YouTube. However, some of these songs are ad-supported, indicated by this icon 
. If you use them, the owner’s ads may appear on your video, and you will not be able to monetize this video.
Adding audio tracks to your video
- Go to your Video Manager page, and click the arrow next to Edit on the video you’d like to edit
- In the drop-down menu, click the Audio btn
- Select a track by clicking on it and preview your video with the music track added
- Search for a track using the search box, or browse by genre using the Featured Tracks tab
- Once you’ve found a track you like, click the Save btn, and the new audio will be applied to your video. Audio tracks can be positioned in a precise part of your video using the position audio feature.
Customizing audio position and length
After selecting an audio track, click on the Position audio btn below the preview player. The name audio track will appear below the player in a highlighted bar. Click on the bar.
You can now trim and drag the bar to customize length and position by clicking on the beginning or end of the bar and dragging it to the left or right. After you’ve trimmed the track, drag it to a particular position in the video.
This feature allows you to set when an audio track will play in your video. You can adjust the volume of the audio to play music only, favor the original audio, or mix both.
Click Done positioning when you’re happy with the positioning of the track.
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