Many YouTubers were hit by a wave of false copyright claims by a Multi-Channel Network (MCN) named Illustrated Sound Music. YouTube channels that contain game walkthroughs videos are mainly affected by this debacle, claiming some part of the videos are copyrighted by a content ID allegedly owned by a certain YouTube channel from the Illustrated Sound Music network.
Multi-Channel Network or MCN is a third-party service provider that affiliates with multiple YouTube channels, which basically allows them to monetize the videos and handles all copyrights, profits and legal issues of their partnered channels.
Once a video got hit by a copyright claim, the videos affected will be ineligible to monetize. Any revenue earned from the videos will be pass to the copyright owner.
Most Youtuber that are affected by these claims post their concern to Reddit and Twitter.
“the monkeys over at Illustrated Sound Music are going crazy with the YouTube claims today to keep it up guys, I hope those pennies from 4-year-old playthrough makes you rich!”, @itmeJP said on his tweet.
The thing is this false claim was caused by an internal error where the entire walkthrough game videos of the alleged YouTube channel were fed into the Content ID system of Youtube. Causing copyright claims to all walkthrough videos that matches the Content ID, including the game soundtracks.
Gustavo Canine Games Apologize
The alleged Youtube Channel is Gustavo Canine Games. A YouTuber who happens to upload videos of game walkthroughs and has more than 3,000 videos uploaded into his channel. Just recently, Gustavo apologized to everyone through a video.
“I apologized to everyone. It’s not me claiming the videos. It was some technical error of my network Illustrated Sound.”, said Gustavo.
Gustavo also wants to leave the network because of the issue. “I can’t leave the network. I need help! Pass the message. And it’s being horrible to me, being accused of criminal for something I didn’t do. If this issue is not resolved within 24h, I will delete my channel”.
Usually, a YouTuber who joins a Multi-Channel Network is legally bound with a contract that usually locked up for 1 to 5 years. If the contract is not yet expired, they’re not allowed to leave the network or else they will face legal consequences.
Illustrated Sound Music Statement
The MCN, Illustrated Sound Music also issued a statement from their Twitter account, addressing all YouTube channels affected by the copyright claim.
“We deeply apologize for the abundance of copyright claims on your content. We are working closely with YouTube to get these claims released and to restore order back to the content id ecosystem.
Please be aware that Illustrated Sounds creators are NOT a fault for this error.
We at ISN are firm believers in upholding the YouTube community guidelines and respecting the copyright of others. We kindly ask you to please be patient with us as we are work on correcting these issues and releasing our claims on your content.”
What to do?
If you’re affected, what you can do right now is to counter the claim. This is by disputing the copyright claim to continue getting revenue from the videos and eventually released the videos once YouTube and Illustrated Sound Music solved the issue.
Are you affected by this false copyright claim? Let us know in the comment section.