YouTube will soon make it easier for content creators to bypass copyright claims for short or unintentional clips of music being played in the background of videos.
According to a blog post by the streaming site, the changes will help the system be fairer to content creators.
While the rules won’t entirely stop claims from happening, they will remove the ability for copyright holders to make money. As such if there was “unintentional” or “very short clips” of music playing in the background of a video clip, the copyright holder will not be able to earn money from ads placed in the video.
The copyright holder will have the option to leave the video up and block the creator from making money, or they can block the video completely, The Verge reported. These new rules only apply to audio clips and not video clips, YouTube indicated.
“We acknowledge that these changes may result in more blocked content in the near-term, but we feel this is an important step toward striking the right balance over the long-term,” YouTube said in the blog post.
David Rosenstein, YouTube’s director of creator product management, told The Verge, that there had recently been a spike in manual claims filed on small audio clips. He also clarified that very short moment of audio playing would mean “single-digit seconds.”
It is also important to note that the rule only applies to manual copyright claims, so when a record label notifies when something belongs to them and files the violation by hand. The Verge noted that if YouTube’s Content ID system tracks videos for copyright material then the rights holder will still be able to make money from that content.
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