YouTube debuts Copyright Match tool for identifying video copies

YouTube has announced a new tool designed to help copyright holders protect their work. It has rolled out a new Copyright Match tool designed to help identify re-uploads of their protected content. Any time a new video is uploaded to the platform, YouTube will scan it to find any other content that is the same or very similar. Results will appear in the “matches” tab of the Copyright Match tool.

A blog post from YouTube includes some critical points about the tool. First, it is focused strictly on re-uploads. The tool uses time of upload to determine who should be shown matches, meaning that the first person to post a video is the one YouTube will treat as having top priority. When matching videos are identified, the original uploader can choose to do nothing, contact the other creator, or request that the video be removed. YouTube’s post gives a loose approach to monitoring potentially incorrect or inaccurate takedown requests:

Before taking action, we ask that you carefully evaluate each match to confirm that you own the rights to the matched content and ensure that you believe it infringes on your copyright. You should not file a copyright takedown request for content that you do not own exclusively, such as public domain content. You should also consider whether the matched content could be considered fair use or could be subject to some other exceptions to copyright and hence not require permission for reuse.

Although the concept is similar to Content ID, the technology is distinct from YouTube’s other copyright management tool.

Anna Washenko