Free YouTube Monetization Course – Lesson 7
In our previous lesson, we found the answer to the question What are YouTube copyrights? In that lesson, I explained what kind of measures YouTube takes as a result of copyright infringement. If you have not read that lesson, you can read it by accessing it from here. In this lesson, we will learn what a copyright strike penalty is, which is the nightmare of YouTube channel owners, and what steps we can take to protect ourselves from this penalty. First, let us answer the questions What is a copyright strike? Why is a copyright strike penalty applied?
What is a copyright strike? Why is a copyright strike penalty applied?
A copyright strike penalty is a type of penalty designed to protect original content, to protect the rights of the original owners of that content, and to punish channels that violate the rights of authors. You can watch the video below prepared by YouTube Copyright School regarding copyright and copyright strike penalties.
Some restrictions are applied to channels that receive a copyright strike penalty. A channel that receives a copyright strike penalty 3 times within 90 days is permanently deleted by YouTube. Let us look at what restrictions are applied to a channel each time a copyright strike penalty is received.
First Copyright Strike
Restrictions for one week are applied to a channel that receives its first copyright strike penalty within 90 days. Since this is your first penalty, YouTube sends a notification about this penalty to your channel and your email address. When you receive your first penalty, the following one-week restrictions are applied.
- You cannot upload videos or do live streams
- You cannot publish scheduled live streams
- You cannot publish scheduled videos
- You cannot change channel cover images or make community posts
- You cannot create playlists, edit playlists, or add collaborators
Afterwards, you are redirected to a page called YouTube Copyright School, where you are required to watch some lesson videos about copyright and complete a test exam consisting of 3 to 5 questions. At the end of one week, all restrictions are lifted, but the copyright strike penalty remains visible on your channel for 90 days.
Second Copyright Strike
When you receive a copyright strike penalty for the second time within 90 days, the same penalties listed above are applied for 2 weeks. After 2 weeks, all restrictions are lifted, but the 2 copyright strike penalties remain visible on your channel for 90 days.
Third Copyright Strike
When you receive the third copyright strike, your YouTube channel and any other YouTube channels opened with the Gmail account linked to that channel will be permanently deleted. You will not be able to open a YouTube channel again with that Gmail account.
What should be done when you receive a copyright strike penalty
If you have received a copyright strike penalty on your YouTube channel, there are several steps you can take here.
You can object to the decision
If you do not agree with the given decision and you have the broadcasting rights to the content, you can object to this decision and request the removal of the penalty. If you do not have the broadcasting rights to the content, the objection you make will not provide any benefit. If the copyright strike penalty was given because you violated YouTube rules, you can still object to the decision. However, such objections are often ineffective.
You can contact the claimant, meaning the original owner of the content
If the copyright strike penalty given to your channel was applied because one of your videos was removed by its original owner, you can contact the content owner and request that the removal decision be withdrawn. Usually, after a copyright strike decision, YouTube sends you an explanatory email regarding the decision. This email includes the contact information of the claimant, meaning the original owner of the content, especially their email address. Through that email, you can contact the other party, reach an agreement, and obtain permission to share the content. However, it should be noted that in most cases this method does not produce a positive result.
You can wait for the penalty period to end
If you have received a copyright strike penalty twice consecutively within 90 days, I recommend that you do not upload new videos until the 90 days end. After 90 days, the penalty period will expire and the penalty will be automatically removed from your channel. After that, you can upload new videos. During the 90 days, reviewing your past uploads and checking whether there are visuals in those uploads that could result in penalties will also be beneficial for you.
In order to prevent your YouTube channel, which you have created with great effort, from being permanently deleted in the future and to avoid encountering the restrictions listed above, it will be beneficial for you not to share visuals and sounds that belong to others and to fully comply with YouTube’s rules. If you play the game according to the rules, you will achieve success faster.
