If you get a copyright strike, it means your content was removed due to a legal copyright removal request. These requests are reviewed and, if they appear to be valid, we have to remove the content to comply with copyright law.
Copyright strikes expire in 90 days if you complete Copyright School and your channel has fewer than 3 copyright strikes. You can also resolve them by getting a retraction or submitting a counter notification. Channels that get 3 copyright strikes in 90 days are subject to termination.
Understanding Copyright Strikes
What happens when you get a copyright strike
When your channel gets a copyright strike, we’ll email you and explain why. We'll also explain how to resolve the copyright strike. Official notifications come from no-reply@youtube.com.
Here’s what happens to your channel:
1 copyright strike:
- We remove the content from YouTube.
- You can complete Copyright School to have the strike expire in 90 days, otherwise it will remain active on your channel.
2 copyright strikes:
- Same steps as above.
- If Copyright School was completed, the strike will expire in 90 days, otherwise it will remain active on your channel.
3 copyright strikes:
- If your channel has 3 active copyright strikes, or if any channels linked to yours have 3 active copyright strikes, your channel is subject to termination.
- If your channel is terminated, content uploaded to your channel will be inaccessible.
- You can’t create new YouTube channels.
- Content can be removed from the site for reasons other than copyright.
- Videos can only have 1 copyright strike at a time.
Resolve a copyright strike
There are 3 ways to resolve a copyright strike:
- Complete Copyright School and wait 90 days: Copyright strikes expire after 90 days if Copyright School is completed.
- Get a retraction: You can get in touch with the person who submitted the copyright removal request and ask them to retract the copyright removal request.
- Submit a counter notification: If you think your content was removed by mistake, or qualifies as a copyright exception, like fair use, you can submit a counter notification.
Get info about a copyright strike
- Sign in to YouTube Studio.
- On the Dashboard
look under Active copyright strikes for info about copyright strikes.
or
- Sign in to YouTube Studio.
- From the left menu, click Content
.
- Click the filter bar
Copyright.
- In the Visibility column, find a video with “Removed” status.
- In the Restrictions column, hover over Copyright.
- Click See details.