After launching Content ID nearly five years ago, Youtube has today announced a number of updates to the program, including a new appeals process for challenging copyright claims, more accurate content detection and improvements in catching unintentional claims.
YouTube originally developed Content ID to protect content creators from copyright infringement (and to protect itself from lawsuits), but as many frustrated users know, videos have been mistakenly targeted as infringing content in the past. To help resolve some of these mistakes, YouTube is now introducing an appeals process, which lets users take copyright disputes further, in the event that they are rejected by content owners.
As YouTube explains, now when a user “files an appeal, a content owner has two options: release the claim or file a formal DMCA notification.” This change should help protect the average user against improper complaints — something that has proven to be an issue lately, particularly with Universal Music. In addition, requiring a formal DMCA request could slow down the overall number of complaints that YouTube has to deal with, though that has yet to be seen.
With more than ten million reference files in its Content ID library, YouTube says it is working to improve the algorithms which identify potentially invalid claims.
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Clearly this update will help make automated processes more accurate, but it’s also good to see that YouTube isn’t under the impression that its methods are perfect. There is more work to be done.
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