So I logged into one of my YouTube channels that I use specifically for video gaming and when I clicked on the “account” link, there was a notice on my page that said “You have videos that may contain content that is owned by someone else. Please review these videos.”
I clicked on the link and it turned out that it’s only one of many of my videos. It’s a video of me playing Resident Evil 5 on the Xbox 360.
When I clicked the “Copyright Info” button, I was assuming that it was going to be Capcom or a related company who had a part in creating the game.
Well, I clicked through and it said that my video “may include content that is owned or licensed by CNET.” If you’ve never heard of CNET, they’re basically a large media company that specializes in news, reviews, downloads, etc.
What I’m guessing is that they did a review or something of Resident Evil 5 at some point and then saw the video I posted and assumed that I stole it from them. If they cared to compare my video to theirs, they would probably find out otherwise.
Anyway, I’m told by YouTube that my video is still available worldwide, but that ads would now appear next to it.
I really don’t care all that much about it, but I wanted to dispute this, just to see how it all worked.
I clicked on the link that said “Learn more about the dispute process.” The next page took me to an explanation about valid and invalid reasons of disputing a claim.
I THINK that my reason is valid.
On the dispute form page, there are several warnings of submitting a false claim or in bad-faith. If either of these are found to be true, there could be penalties taken against the account or the account could possibly even terminated.
I submitted the dispute anyway in hopes that my account wouldn’t be terminated. I didn’t steal the content from anyone and I don’t believe CNET has the rights to it.
Anyway, that was about a month ago now, and I never heard anything back about it. I guess my claim turned out to be valid. Either that or they didn’t really care that much and just let it go.
So if someone claims one of your videos as their own, now you know what to do.
