On the American

social media Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the Content creation, creation, information exchange, sharing and news aggregator, aggregation of Content (media), content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongs ...

and

online video sharing An online video platform (OVP) enables users to upload, convert, store, and play back video content on the Internet, often via a private server structured, large-scale system that may generate revenue. Users will generally upload video content vi ...

platform

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

, a copyright strike is a copyright policing practice used by

for the purpose of managing

copyright infringement Copyright infringement (at times referred to as piracy) is the use of Copyright#Scope, works protected by copyright without permission for a usage where such permission is required, thereby infringing certain exclusive rights granted to the c ...

and complying with the

Digital Millennium Copyright Act The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a 1998 United States copyright law that implements two 1996 treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). It criminalizes production and dissemination of technology, devices, or ...

(DMCA). The DMCA is the basis for the design of the YouTube copyright strike system. For YouTube to retain DMCA safe harbor protection, it must respond to copyright infringement claims with a

notice and take down Notice and take down is a process operated by online hosts in response to court orders or allegations that content is illegal. Content is removed by the host following notice. Notice and take down is widely operated in relation to copyright infr ...

process. YouTube's own practice is to issue a "YouTube copyright strike" on the user accused of copyright infringement. When a YouTube user gets hit with a copyright strike, they are required to watch a warning video and complete a quiz about the rules of copyright. A copyright strike will expire after 90 days. However, if a YouTube user accumulates three copyright strikes within those 90 days, YouTube terminates that user's YouTube channel, including any associated channels that the user has, removes all of their videos from that user's YouTube channel, and prohibits that user from creating another YouTube channel. YouTube assigns strikes based on reports of copyright violations from bots. Some users have expressed concern that the strike process is unfair to users. The complaint is that the system assumes the guilt of YouTube users and takes the side of copyright holders even when no infringement has occurred. YouTube and game company

Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and releases both video games and video game consoles. The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi ...

were criticized by

Cory Doctorow Cory Efram Doctorow (; born 17 July 1971) is a Canadian-British blogger, journalist, and science fiction author who served as co-editor of the blog ''Boing Boing''. He is an activist in favour of liberalising copyright laws and a proponent of th ...

, a writer for the blog ''

Boing Boing ''Boing Boing'' is a website, first established as a zine in 1988, later becoming a group blog. Common topics and themes include technology, futurism, science fiction, gadgets, intellectual property, Disney, and left-wing politics. It twice wo ...

'', due to them reportedly treating video game reviewers unfairly by threatening them with strikes.

Reasons for strikes

Disagreements about what constitutes fair use

Fair use Fair use is a Legal doctrine, doctrine in United States law that permits limited use of copyrighted material without having to first acquire permission from the copyright holder. Fair use is one of the limitations to copyright intended to bal ...

is a legal rationale for reusing copyrighted content in a limited way, such as to discuss or criticize other media. Several YouTube creators have reported receiving copyright strikes for using media in the context of fair use.

Suppression of criticism

YouTube creators have reported receiving copyright strikes on videos critical of corporate products. They assert that copyright violation, in this context, has been used as a strategy to suppress criticism.

Strikes for posting own work

Miracle of Sound Gavin Dunne (born May 6, 1980), better known by the name of his music project "Miracle of Sound", is an Irish indie musician known for his music inspired by video games, films, and TV shows. While not widely known in his home country of Irela ...

s channel was hit with copyright strikes as a result of automated strikes by the distributor of their own music.

Strikes for works in the public domain

In a similar incident to strikes, though in another forum, Sony Music issued an automated copyright strike against James Rhodes for a video on

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

of him playing a part of a piece by

Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (German: �joːhan zeˈbasti̯an baχ ( – 28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his prolific output across a variety of instruments and forms, including the or ...

, on the grounds that they owned the copyright on a similar recording, and when the strike was challenged, asserted that they owned the rights to the work, before finally admitting that Bach's compositions are in the

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no Exclusive exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly Waiver, waived, or may be inapplicable. Because no one holds ...

Strikes for unknown reasons

Some publishers on YouTube report not understanding why they have received strikes.

References

External links

h3h3Productions h3h3Productions is a YouTube channel created and hosted by American-Israeli YouTuber Ethan Klein. His content consists of reaction videos and sketch comedy in which he satirizes internet culture. The '' H3 Podcast'' is his current podcast ch ...

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