Dis-content ID

On April 23, 2005 a recent college grad from the University of Illinois uploaded a nineteen second clip of himself in front of an elephant exhibit to the internet, using a social media platform that he and two other friends designed and launched in a small office. This short and mundane clip was the first video ever uploaded to the massively popular platform that is known as Youtube. Don’t worry! If a guy talking about elephants for 19 seconds doesn’t captivate your attention, Youtube today, more than 15 years later, has enough content to last more than 70,000 years, and users can easily find videos on virtually any topic. From music videos, to skits, to vlogs, to unboxing videos, the list of user-created content is truly endless.

While Youtube’s meteoric rise in popularity has been great for the company and content creators alike, it has also presented its fair share of challenges. Perhaps, there is no greater challenge the company faces today than overcoming copyright issues. With the hundreds of thousands of videos that are uploaded to the platform every day, Youtube needs a way to ensure that users aren’t violating any fair use policies or copyright laws which could lead to a potentially deadly lawsuit. In order to prevent this, Google introduced a new technology that automatically flagged videos with potential copyright infringements called Content ID. The technology scans videos and cross-lists them with a database in which copyright owners can upload a sample of their work. If the software identifies audio or video that already exists within the database it will automatically flag and demonetize the upload. While this might seem like the perfect solution to a challenging issue, Youtube’s content creators are up in arms over its implementation.

While demonetization of a video may not seem like an egregious issue, for youtubers who rely on their channel as their primary source of income, copyright claims can prove to be a massive headache. And while users have the ability to appeal copyright claims, these appeal processes may take weeks or even months to sort out and don’t make up for lost revenue. Considering this, content creators are understandably upset when their videos are flagged, demonetized, or taken down due to Content ID claims that prove to be illegitimate. For example, in 2018, the BBC published this story about a youtuber who received a copyright strike for a song that he created himself and there are numerous more examples of creators wrongfully receiving copyright strikes on their channel. Stories like these shine a bright light on the shortcomings of youtube’s copyright technology. However, despite the frustration and outrage that Content ID has created for some, the system in place is the best possible solution. While dealing with faulty copyright claims through appeals and talking with Youtube representatives may seem tedious and in-just at times, the alternative is exceedingly more problematic. Because without Content ID, instead of receiving a copyright strike, users suspected of violating any fair-use laws would receive lawsuit. So while it may not be perfect, there are far greater reasons for discontent.