YouTube tool checks copyright before uploading videos

YouTube has rolled out a feature that checks videos for copyright issues before creators upload them to the website.

The new tool, called ‘Checks’, will tell creators if their videos have any copyrighted material in them. It will also show if the video meets the website’s advertising guidelines.

Up until now, YouTube creators had to upload videos and hope for the best.

The video can lose ad revenue or be restricted if it has copyrighted material.

How do you use the YouTube copyright Checks tool?

Previously, YouTube creators could check if their YouTube videos had copyrighted music using the YouTube Audio Library.

However, the Checks tool is available in the main YouTube Studio when uploading a video on desktop.

It uses YouTube’s Content ID system and will tell you if your video has copyrighted content.

If it does, the tool will tell you where it is and its overall impact. The process takes around three minutes to complete.

The new tool means creators don’t have to publish a video as unlisted or private to check if it will be restricted or prevented from making money.

Creators can still publish the video while the checking process continues. However, the final result can impact your video once it’s completed.

If the tool does find copyrighted material, you can dispute the claim if you believe it’s invalid.

If the claim on your video is overturned, any ad money lost during that period will be paid out to you. But if it’s valid, the money goes to to the copyright holder.

If there’s a problem with the ad suitability of a video, you can request a review and double-check things like the video thumbnail and metadata.

Once the review is complete, you will receive an email update with the results.

However, the Checks tool doesn’t protect the video from manual copyright claims, or other issues after a video is published.

You can find out more about the tool on the YouTube Checks support page.

Feature image: Unsplash/Christian Wiediger

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