YouTube: How to Avoid Copyright Infringement Claims for Your Unlisted Private Videos

YouTube and its copyright management is a very complicated story. How to avoid detection and claims of copyright infringement regarding private or unregistered videos? What if a private or unregistered YouTube video is found to be infringing?

YouTube is seen more as a video sharing platform with a large audience, but it’s also a good solution for saving or sharing videos privately as long as you abide by the platform’s copyright rules. As David Gewritz at ZDNET explains, YouTube checks for videos submitted as private (only available to the sender) or unregistered (available to anyone with the link).

YouTube and its copyright management

Scanning unlisted and private videos is useful for professional content creators. They may submit a private video to ensure it passes review before making it public, or adjust it as necessary to avoid demonetization or otherwise. However, this is a serious drawback for users who just want to share a video with a few loved ones or for a school project, for example.

More often than not, if your content is found to be infringing, you will receive a warning. But if the copyright holder decides to go further, your video may be taken down or you may receive a formal complaint. And there it is already more serious, since three complaints against you and your channel are irretrievably deleted, which deprives you of any actions on the platform.

Fortunately, it is possible to avoid these problems with your private and unregistered videos.

How to Avoid Detection and Claims of Copyright Infringement on Private or Unregistered Videos

If you use YouTube to save or share videos privately, you still need to follow copyright rules. It’s pretty straightforward, according to YouTube: “Creators should only upload videos they’ve made themselves or have permission to watch. This means that they must not submit videos they did not make, or use content that belongs to someone else, such as music or snippets, or videos made by others, without permission.”

It’s nearly impossible for YouTube to detect a family video posted as private, but if you’re doing a school project with copyrighted music, for example, you can start the process.

Luckily, YouTube’s automated system checks videos as they’re uploaded, alerting you to problems almost instantly to avoid repercussions. But these checks happen all the time and can be retroactively applied to unregistered or private videos, even if they were passed on upload.

If your video is found to be infringing, you can take the following actions:

What to do if a private or unregistered YouTube video is found to be infringing

If you receive a private or unregistered video warning, don’t panic. Here are your options:

• Appeal. You can dispute the disclaimer or file a complaint if it is erroneous or falls within the scope of “fair use”. The latter is a difficult topic. If you choose to file an appeal, YouTube will review your case or respond to you within a few days.
• Delete or edit videos. If you don’t want or can’t appeal, you can edit your video using YouTube Studio’s tools. They are limited, but allow you to perform certain actions. You can also remove the video from the YouTube Studio menu, then edit it with your favorite editing tool and send it back to the platform. Or remove it altogether.
• Find a different hosting platform: Of course, you can also submit your videos to platforms like Vimeo, DailyMotion or The Internet Archives. They also have copyright restrictions on use. Some are even paid.
• Use Cloud Storage: Cloud storage services such as Google Photos/Drive, Dropbox, or iCloud are great backup options. And you can send links to your loved ones. Rendering is also better because (in most cases) no compression is applied. No copyright check. However, pay attention to the amount of storage offered.
• Go analog: you can save your videos entirely to external drives, or even burn them to Blu-ray and DVD. This is a safe way to save your videos.