Complete Guide to YouTube Copyright Rules

The last thing any YouTube channel creator wants is to get a notice that there has been a copyright claim on their account for a video that’s been uploaded to their channel or that resulted in a copyright strike.  

Luckily, by taking the time to learn about what you can—and can’t—do when creating YouTube videos for your channel, a strike can easily be avoided. We’ve rounded up the key copyright guidelines that can help you understand how copyright works on the platform, including the latest updates on AI-generated content.  

We included what claims and strikes are, and which copyright permission categories you can use. This article provides a general overview of some issues you may face while dealing with copyright on YouTube.  

If you want to know how not to get copyrighted, how copyright is assigned, or how to avoid copyright infringement, this article will help. However, please note that we are not giving legal advice; if you need more specific guidance, you should always check with a lawyer first. 

What is Copyright?

A copyright is an intellectual property right that protects creators of original content, work, or authorship, which is fundamental to understanding how a YouTube copyright strike occurs.  

This includes songs, music, images, or artwork. Simply put, if you created or purchased the content, such as music, images, or artwork, then the copyright belongs to you. If someone else created the content or purchased the content, then the copyright belongs to them.  

This can include almost any piece of content made in its original form, including intellectual property, images, or music. 

Important Update: AI-generated content can be protected by copyright only where a human author has determined sufficient expressive elements, according to the US Copyright Office. AI-generated content cannot be copyrighted in the US due to the lack of human authorship, which introduces new considerations under copyright law creators must follow. 

Copyrights are immediate upon the creation of original content, but they can also be purchased. Currently, there isn’t a copyright renewal process. That means the copyright stays active as long as the creator is living—and even longer in some cases.  

A copyright holder has the right to determine under what conditions the copyrighted material may be used or shared by others, defining the relationship to the copyrighted content required. Copyrights should not be confused with licensing, such as legally using licensed music or images under the standard YouTube license. 

What is YouTube Copyright Infringement? 

Copyright infringement on YouTube is also known as a copyright violation or a strike scenario; the two terms are used synonymously. This happens when you use copyrighted material that does not belong to you and does not legally fall under any other copyright use provisions, which explains how a strike occurs and what happens if the content is copyrighted. 

YouTube has a YouTube Rights Management Policy with a copyright detection system made of advanced automated algorithms, otherwise known as the “Content ID” management tool, which governs platform regulations related to copyright enforcement. 

Understanding YouTube’s Content ID System

YouTube’s Content ID tool is a content management system with a copyright detection process that utilizes advanced algorithms. The Content ID management tool scans every uploaded video and runs comparison checks to evaluate similarities against other YouTube content, looking for video matches along with pictures and music.  

YouTube uses this tool to look for copyright violations, which often determines what happens if your YouTube video gets copyrighted. 

YouTube Copyright Guide 

YouTube’s first rule of copyright states: “Creators should only upload videos that they have made or that they’re authorized to use. That means they should not upload videos they didn’t make or use content in their videos that someone else owns the copyright to, such as music tracks, snippets of copyrighted programs, or videos made by other users, without necessary authorizations.”  

This directly explains what are YouTube copyright rules. Let’s look at a couple of the most common issues that come up with copyright on YouTube. Here is a quick highlight of the dos and don’ts. 

Do: 

• Use your own original content 

• Obtain proper licenses for any third-party content 

• Use royalty-free or Creative Commons material with proper attribution 

• NEW: Disclose when using AI-generated content that depicts realistic scenarios 

Don’t: 

• Use copyrighted music without permission 

• Upload videos you didn’t create 

• Assume that giving credit automatically makes it fair use 

• NEW: Create mass-produced or repetitive AI content without adding substantial human creativity 

Using Copyrighted Content Legally: Your Options

In a nutshell, you should only upload content (including music, videos, and artwork) that you created or that you’re authorized to use to avoid a copy right strike situation. However, there are a few other ways you can upload copyrighted content without explicit permission from the copyright owner. 

Depending on the type of content and its purpose, you can sometimes use copyrighted content with different permissions. To avoid copyright issues on YouTube, use only content that falls under the following categories. 

1. Fair Use (Use with Extreme Caution) 

Creators can sometimes decide to use copyrighted content if they deem that the purpose they are using it for falls under “fair use,” as outlined in YouTube fair use guidelines. If you are using copyrighted content for the purposes of education, research, news reporting, or review, you might be able to use the content under fair use. You are responsible for determining this. 

In order to use copyrighted material under fair use, there are very specific requirements. You must decide if the content falls under one of the “fair use categories.” Fair use is a legal concept that permits people to use copyrighted material for specific purposes without obtaining permission and without paying royalties. 

Legal Update: YouTube will now follow fair use policies as they apply to each region to decide whether to remove videos, meaning fair use determinations may vary by country. 

YouTube does not decide what is considered “fair use”; only the local courts do. The general methods of using copyrighted material under fair use are general reviews, reporting news, educational purposes, scholarly research, or parody. Applying fair use to your video can be tricky, so definitely check out more about it. 

Fair use permits the reuse of copyrighted material under specific circumstances without needing to acquire permission from the copyright holder. For example, for YouTube in the US, a creator may use copyrighted material for commentary, research, teaching, or in some cases, news reporting. However, the qualification of fair use is determined on a case-by-case basis; additionally, different countries have different rules and laws. 

There are many misconceptions surrounding what falls under fair use, among which is the notion that you can use anything you want as long as you don’t go beyond a specific time limit; however, it’s more complex than that. 

Even if your use of copyrighted content is consistent with fair use, using a copy from an unapproved source invalidates the fair use provision. It’s highly recommended not to rely on this to avoid copyright issues. 

2. Licensed Content 

Most YouTube creators don’t have the ability to constantly film and produce original content. That is why an online royalty-free media library is one of the best investments any YouTube creator can make. This means that a YouTube channel creator can purchase a license to use the content from businesses that have pre-negotiated the copyrights for YouTube use.  

Promo, for example, offers over 110 million images and videos with lifetime licensing for YouTube projects. The audio library also offers over 1.5 thousand pre-approved music tracks, so anything you create on the platform is 100% worry-free and compliant with YouTube copyright rules. 

3. Creative Commons Content 

Creative Commons music is copyrighted music. The original artist grants permission for anyone to use their copyrighted music as long as you attribute the music to them in your content. 

Wikimedia Commons is a media collection website for free-use images, sounds, and other media files, as long as you properly attribute the artist’s work. It is a project of the Wikimedia Foundation and is often misunderstood by creators, asking if YouTube videos are in the public domain. 

4. Public Domain Content 

Finally, there is what falls under “Public Domain.” This means just that—it belongs to the public and does not result in copyright violations when used correctly. 

In the US, a song or piece of music is automatically considered to be under the public domain if it was published before January 1, 1926. Otherwise, there are websites that offer royalty-free music that may be licensed for use on YouTube. To understand how to know if a song is copyrighted, just look it up online. See if you can find the date. As a general rule, you can. 

Please check out this link for some helpful information about public domain images. There are multiple ways to determine whether or not an image is under the public domain for YouTube use. Specifically for images, the most common ways to determine whether they are subject to the public domain are: 

• Check the publication date 

• Look for explicit public domain declarations 

• Research the creator’s death date (works enter the public domain 70 years after death in most countries) 

AI-Generated Content and Copyright Rules

AI Disclosure Requirements 

YouTube requires creators to disclose when they’ve created altered or synthetic content that is realistic, including using AI tools, under updated YouTube regulations. This is particularly important for: 

• AI-generated videos that realistically depict events that never happened 

• Content showing someone saying or doing something they didn’t actually do 

• AI-generated voices or voice cloning 

• Deepfakes or face-swapping content 

AI Monetization Policy Changes 

Major Update: YouTube updated its Partner Program rules on July 15, 2025, to explicitly target “inauthentic content,” which includes AI commentary, reaction clips, and compilations that don’t show clear transformation, editing, or value added by the creator, directly impacting revenue sharing and copyright compliance. 

What’s Still Allowed: 

• AI tools used to enhance human-created content 

• AI-generated content with substantial human input and creativity 

• Educational content about AI or technology 

What’s Not Allowed: 

• Mass-produced AI content with minimal human involvement 

• AI-generated content that mimics existing creators without permission 

• Repetitive or formulaic AI-generated videos 

Copyright Protection for AI Content 

AI-generated content cannot be copyrighted in the US due to the lack of human authorship, but content that combines AI generation with substantial human creativity may still qualify for copyright protection on the platform. 

Understanding YouTube Copyright Claims vs. Strikes 

Copyright Claims (Content ID Claims) 

When the Content ID system finds a video that matches your content with another channel’s, a copyright claim, also known as a Content ID claim, is created. A Content ID claim is the same as a copyright claim, and the terms are often used interchangeably. An important note is that copyright claims do not result in a copyright strike. 

A copyright claim happens when a creator uses the material of other creators, whether on purpose or unwittingly. Copyright issues often go unnoticed; however, the platform’s detection algorithms are getting more advanced. 

Copyright claims are generally automated through the Content ID management system. The results typically include the content in question being tracked, blocked, or monetized for the copyright owner. You can still use the content, but the owner can restrict the viewing of the video to specific countries or even earn revenue from your video. 

Update: As of June 2025, you are not able to undo changes made with YouTube Studio Editor after saving using the Revert to original feature, so be careful when editing claimed content. 

Copyright Strikes (DMCA Takedowns) 

A copyright strike happens when the copyright owner makes a request to remove a video based on what is known as a DMCA strike. DMCA stands for the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. A Copyright Takedown request is submitted manually. The platform requires the copyright owner to supply a detailed list of information regarding the content they want to protect. 

To comply with DMCA policies, the platform must respond to copyright infringement claims with a notice to the channel and details of the takedown process. The consequence of this is that the video will be removed from the channel until the dispute is resolved, and the channel receives a copyright strike. 

Copyright strikes adversely affect a YouTube channel, as the channel is then losing good standing with YouTube. Even if a channel creator removes the video in question, the strike remains on the account for 90 days. 

How to Handle Copyright Claims and Strikes

Dealing with Copyright Claims 

If you get a copyright claim on your channel, don’t panic too much; you can fix it, and the claims only last 90 days, so just be mindful not to keep using content that could result in repeated strikes. If the copyright owner doesn’t respond within 30 days, the claim on your video expires—in which case, you don’t need to do anything.

However, if the copyright owner pursues the claim, you’ll get blocked or taken down. The simple solution is to remove the content in question from your video or prove that you have the copyright or legal licensing to use it, which helps you avoid further copyright issues.

Your options for resolving claims: 

• Trim Out Segment: Edit out just the claimed segment from your video 

• Replace Song: Replace claimed audio with tracks from the YouTube Audio Library 

• Erase Song: Mute the claimed audio portions 

Take any claims your channel receives seriously—you need to act, or there will be consequences. The platform takes breaches seriously and will remove the infringing video. Understanding how copyright works on YouTube is essential for preventing future strikes. 

Managing Copyright Strikes 

If you get a copyright strike, it means that a copyright owner submitted a legal takedown request for using their copyrighted content. When a user receives a strike, they are required to watch a warning video (aka Copyright School) detailing copyright rules and then answer questions about copyright law YouTube enforces on the platform. There are three ways to resolve copyright strikes: 

• Wait It Out: Strikes expire after 90 days 

• Get a Retraction: Contact the copyright owner directly 

• Counter-notification: If you believe the strike was issued in error 

The Three-Strike System 

Copyright strikes are not something to ignore. If a channel gets one strike, the creator must go to Copyright School; then, after 90 days, it expires. If a channel receives another strike within the first strike’s 90-day timeline, the 90-day period starts over, and the same goes for the third strike. 

However, if a channel receives a third strike before the first two have expired, the platform terminates that creator’s channel. This includes all associated channels and removes all of their videos, prohibiting the creator from making any other channels.  

This answers common questions like what happens if you get 2 copyright strikes on YouTube or how many copyright strikes are allowed. So basically, like baseball, three strikes and you’re out. But unlike baseball, it’s permanent—not only do you lose your content, but you also get banned from creating future channels. 

Best Practices to Avoid Copyright Issues

For Traditional Content 

In order to stay out of trouble, you should only upload content—whether it’s music, videos, or artwork—that you created or that you’re legally authorized to use. This includes derivative works of copyrighted material. Understanding YouTube and copyright, as well as how to avoid copyright infringement, is key. 

If you create your own content, then the copyright belongs to you, but if you upload content created by someone else, then you don’t hold the copyright to the content; the originator does. Therefore, you must get their permission before using it to avoid claims or strikes unless you can prove the content falls under fair use, as defined in fair use guidelines. 

Music Copyright Guidelines 

When choosing music for your video, keep in mind that automated systems scan uploads for copyright infringement to check them against enforced music policies YouTube. Therefore, if you want to use a copyrighted track legally, you should get permission or potentially face legal action for using the content without permission or licensing. However, an amazing alternative is using what is known as royalty-free or pre-licensed music. 

Royalty-free is a term used to describe music or images that you’re allowed to use without paying royalties. Adding royalty-free music to your video ensures a worry-free creative process because you comply with all applicable copyright laws. 

Image Copyright Guidelines 

Similar to music copyright rules, the same policies apply to images. Basically, if the image idea is yours and you created it, the copyright belongs to you. If not, it’s better to use alternate sources for images or video footage that provide legal licensing, which is important to avoid copyright strikes. 

A practical alternative to fussing over copyright issues or licensing with images is using already licensed material in your video footage and images. So, whether you’re creating a branded YouTube banner, channel art, or a promotional video, it’s super easy to create some fabulous material with already-made templates and royalty-free images. 

AI Content Best Practices 

For AI-Generated Content: 

• Always add substantial human creativity and input to AI-generated materials 

• Disclose when content uses AI for realistic depictions 

• Avoid mass-producing similar AI content without unique value 

• Ensure the AI tools you use allow commercial usage 

• Be cautious with AI-generated content that mimics copyrighted works 

• Use copyright-safe AI tools like PromoAI that work with pre-licensed content libraries 

These best practices help prevent copyright strikes and clarify what happens if your video gets copyrighted due to AI misuse. 

Create Copyright-Safe Content with Promo.com 

The best way to avoid all copyright infringement issues when you don’t own or have the images, music, or video footage you want for your video creation is to use pre-licensed material from various sources.  

As previously covered, there are many ways to use copyrighted material legally, including stock photo providers and music licensing agencies. In many cases, you can find all three features within online video creation tools. 

PromoAI: Copyright-Safe AI Video Creation

With the rise of AI-generated content concerns, Promo.com’s PromoAI stands out as a completely copyright-safe solution. PromoAI uses Getty Images licensed footage and Triple Scoop Music’s licensed audio library, ensuring that all AI-generated videos are 100% copyright compliant.  

Unlike other AI tools that may scrape content from unknown sources, PromoAI only works with pre-licensed, premium content, giving creators complete peace of mind when creating AI content for YouTube. This approach directly addresses questions like how to avoid copyright infringement and how copyright strikes work. 

This means you can leverage the power of AI to create engaging content without worrying about claims or strikes—everything is already cleared for commercial use through Promo.com’s extensive licensing agreements. Following this method ensures creators don’t face issues like what happens if your video gets copyrighted or what a copyright strike is. 

Any YouTube channel creator understands the labor-intensive work involved in making videos and maintaining a channel. However, as previously mentioned, some great online resources can help you protect yourself from copyright claims and strikes and even assist you in the process of your content creation. 

Out of all the video makers available, Promo.com offers the most comprehensive resources for creators. With Promo, you can enjoy unlimited use of 110M+ photos and videos from Getty Images and iStock, plus access to Triple Scoop Music’s licensed audio library. The easy-to-use editor allows you to create videos by merging several videos from the library, mixing them with your own footage, and adding photos, all while staying compliant with copyright law enforced on the platform. 

PromoAI further enhances this by offering AI-powered video creation that is completely copyright-safe. Since PromoAI exclusively uses Getty Images licensed footage and Triple Scoop Music’s licensed tracks, every AI-generated video is automatically cleared for monetization—no copyright worries, no strikes, no claims. This addresses concerns like what a copyright strike looks like and how a strike occurs. 

You can also pair each video you create with a YouTube intro designed to match your style and brand in minutes. Many times, creators have the footage but need music. Promo.com offers over 1.5K royalty-free music tracks included in every plan.  

You can choose tracks using filters for genre, mood, tempo, and instrument, helping to comply with enforced music policies. Learning how to add music to a video has never been easier, and proper use ensures you avoid issues if the content is flagged. 

Often, the music will drive the overall message of your video when strategically placed in footage. With Promo.com, you can accomplish this with just a few clicks and avoid copyright infringement issues prevalent today. After checking all the boxes to ensure you’re not infringing copyrighted material, you can even use our lyric video maker to create your own music lyric videos safely. 

Staying Current with YouTube’s Evolving Policies 

Hopefully, you have a better idea of how to follow copyright rules and how copyright works. Automated systems are effective at finding infringement, which explains how strikes work and what happens if content is flagged. Like with most developing technology, these systems are getting better and more effective. Consequently, it’s good practice for creators to make sure all content is theirs or properly licensed to stay out of copyright radar and avoid strikes. 

There have been significant changes to how content is handled, especially with the rise of AI-generated materials and evolving regulations. The platform is increasingly focused on authenticity, originality, and transparency. Creators need to adapt by focusing on adding genuine value and human creativity to their content, regardless of the tools they use, to avoid strikes. 

Thankfully, today, there are many resources online for creators to produce content while complying with copyright requirements. Video creation continues to grow as the primary form of communication for essential content and ideas. The platform provides a place for creators to share their products, ideas, and voices globally while respecting enforced copyright law. 

Remember to stay updated with policy changes, as the platform continues to evolve its approach to copyright, fair use, and AI-generated content. The key is always to prioritize originality, transparency, and respect for intellectual property rights to avoid infringement and prevent strikes. 

Common Copyright Questions Answered 

1. What is a claimed video?

A claim on a video is the declaration of asserting copyright ownership of a video, either through the Content ID management system or manually. A claimed video is the status of a video that has one or more claims, helping creators understand what a copyright strike is. 

2. How much copyrighted music can I use?

Currently, there is no specified time that copyrighted music may be used without explicit permission from the copyright owner if the content does not fall legitimately under “fair use.” The only legal method to use music on YouTube is to obtain permission from the copyright holder. 

3. How do copyright owners submit claims?

Copyright owners can manually submit a claim for unauthorized use of copyrighted material to YouTube. They can do this by either issuing a copyright takedown or claiming the video through Content ID. By submitting a takedown request, you begin the process of asserting a legal claim according to the law. 

Use Promo.com’s media and music library for your YouTube videos and never worry about licensing again! Over 200M+ licensed assets inside