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YouTube is making a small but significant change to its Content ID system, which could benefit both devs and video makers.
Up until now, any video identified as containing copyrighted material – such as licensed music or gameplay – was automatically flagged, offering the chance for the owner of the content to claim revenue from its use or even block the video entirely.
This caused gripes between users and game companies, as the automated system led some videos to be pulled without due cause by over-zealous content owners. In addition, any arguments over who owned the content would result in all revenue being frozen until the discussion was resolved, meaning everyone could lose out.
In response to complaints over the way Content ID is handled, the platform will now allow flagged videos to continue to rack up advertising money while a dispute is in discussion.
Then, whenever it’s decided who has the rights to the material, the system will pay out revenue earned during the period of contention appropriately.
“We understand just how important revenue is to our creator community, and we’ve been listening closely to concerns about the loss of monetisation during the Content ID dispute process,” summarised Content ID group product manager David Rosenstein.
“Currently videos that are claimed and disputed don’t earn revenue for anyone, which is an especially frustrating experience for creators if that claim ends up being incorrect while a video racks up views in its first few days.
“Today, we’re announcing a major step to help fix that frustrating experience. We’re developing a new solution that will allow videos to earn revenue while a Content ID claim is being disputed.
“Here’s how it will work: when both a creator and someone making a claim choose to monetise a video, we will continue to run ads on that video and hold the resulting revenue separately. Once the Content ID claim or dispute is resolved, we’ll pay out that revenue to the appropriate party.”
There’s no timeline on when the new system will roll out, but Rosenstein hinted it would be “soon”.
