YouTube to release Copyright Match Tool

The new software was beta-tested and will now be available to creators with more than 100 000 followers. YouTube said it would make the tool available to more content creators in the coming months.

“The Copyright Match Tool finds full re-uploads of your original videos on other YouTube channels,” it said. “Once a match has been identified, you can review it in YouTube Studio and choose which action you'd like to take. At this time, we're rolling this tool out as a small pilot.”

Creators will have the option to archive a matching video, contact the channel that re-uploaded the original video or request for its removal.

“We know how frustrating it is when your content is uploaded to other channels without your permission and how time-consuming it can be to manually search for these re-uploads,” Copyright Match product manager Fabio Magagna said.

“We currently provide a number of ways for copyright owners to protect their work, but we’ve heard from creators that we should do more and we agree.”

Copyright Match is essentially an improvement on YouTube’s Content ID, which was released in 2007. Content ID scans a user’s uploaded content and creates a digital fingerprint on audio and video. When copies of the content are found, the creator is given the option to block, monetise or track viewer data.

Allowing users to monitor the activity of re-uploads could help YouTube solve a number of copyright infringements on the streaming service. Last year, Dutch guitarist Paul Davids was penalised after a YouTube user was the first to upload one of the musician’s song on the platform. As a result, Davids’ upload of the same song was demonetised.