YouTube

YouTube is rolling out copyright checks for videos before they’re published

Ben Schoon | Mar 17 2021 - 9:01 am PT

Copyright is an issue that YouTube creators have had to deal with for ages, and in many cases, it can land them in hot water by mistake. Now, YouTube is rolling out the ability for creators to see if their video will have any copyright troubles at the time of upload with a new “Checks” step during upload.

Generally speaking, if a YouTube video is going to face copyright problems, creators won’t find out until it’s been fully uploaded and, in some cases, published. That can easily land a creator in hot water with strikes on their channel that bring on various restrictions and consequences.

Now, YouTube is adding a step to the upload process simply called “Checks” that analyzes a video before it’s published so a creator can easily see if they’re going to face any problems. In theory, this should make it much easier for creators to know what they’ll be dealing with before the video goes out. YouTube does note, however, that this won’t affect future manually made claims, only those that would be caught with the platform’s automated systems.

You can use the checks page to screen your video for copyright claims and if you’re in the YouTube Partner Program, ad suitability. The Copyright check allows you to dispute a claim or edit and fix your video if issues are found. The ad suitability check allows you to request human review if you think our systems made a mistake. These checks help you learn about potential restrictions so you can address them before publishing.

A social media post is making the rounds with mention of the feature, but our Damien Wilde first noticed the change on the official 9to5Google YouTube channel last week, as pictured below. Google says that the feature is officially being rolled out as of this week. Most creators should see the change within the next day or two if they aren’t seeing it already.