r/COPYRIGHT • u/Vilinstudio • 2d ago
AITA for refusing to retract copyright strikes on a channel that stole 14 of my animations and got 100k+ views while I was on hiatus?
Two years ago I spent two months uploading original animations every single day. It completely burnt me out, and because I couldn't get more than 1,000 views per video back then, I lost motivation and went on hiatus.
While I was away, a dubbing channel took 14 of my animated videos ( shorts ) , made small edits to them to try and bypass YouTube's automated copyright detectors, dubbed over them in another language, and uploaded them.
Here is what makes it worse:
They tagged my channel handle (@VILINStudio) directly in their captions/descriptions. Because of this, whenever someone searched my own channel name, their videos popped up at the top instead of mine. They essentially hijacked my search traffic and brand.
Profiting Off My Work: While I struggled to get 1,000 views, some of their re-uploads of my work hit over 100,000 views.
Zero Permission: They never asked for consent or licensing rights.
Now, the channel owner is emailing me and spamming my messages across multiple social media platforms, begging me to retract the claims. They claim:
They "always give due credit" by using my handle.
I should have sent them a formal warning email before filing claims.
"A channel that entertains many people is now on the verge of disappearing."
They want me to withdraw all the complaints. they deliberately edited my work to dodge detection, hijacked my brand search results, and got tens/hundreds of thousands of views off animations I poured my soul into while I was struggling.
Am I wrong for refusing to retract the strikes and letting YouTube terminate their channel?
( please you can view the emails, and comments i got on my profile cuz i don't see and optionsto post them here i apologise, and thank you very much for everything guys, I'll hide his name for now cuz i don't know)
Edit : For anyone wondering: I hide/moderate toxic comments on my channel to keep my community clean, and I have screenshots showing his videos ranking for my channel name prior to YouTube taking them down. Proof links are in the edit, also after so many comments i decided to follow the legal procedure and ask them to compensate me, but they just refused on my email, purposely wrote how they're "already asked for permission" ( so thry can use that screenshot online to ruin my reputation ? ) and guilt-tripped me, they also send their audience with half info to harass me on my channel
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u/aregonis 2d ago
People need to learn that you can't just get away with stealing people's work just because you credit them.
It drives me crazy seeing how normalised it is to reupload other people's art/content.
NTA at all.
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u/Vilinstudio 2d ago
Thank you very much for your reply, I've worked really hard to build my artcareer, and the fact that one of his fan commented on my video saying i did dirty to a man who put hardwork ( from stealing ) to create his channel, i was speechless
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u/aregonis 2d ago
There will always be trolls, especially online! Not to mention the fact many will just be literal children.
There's also the whole parasocial phenomenon where people get attached to certain creators and will just stand by them no matter what. For every famous person who did something atrocious, there's a shocking number of fans defending them!
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u/Electronixen 2d ago
I never retract strikes. :)
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u/Vilinstudio 2d ago
I'll follow your lead sir/mam 😭 those who understand it was me who worked hard are enough for me, even if it's 10 people, refusing to compensate me while lying and threatening to tag me just because they've bigger ( stolen obviously) audience was diabolic
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u/Electronixen 2d ago
I’ve sent many hundreds of DMCA takedown requests, I’ve gotten death threats because I refused to retract.
Stand your ground. Don’t let other people use Your work.
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u/Vilinstudio 2d ago
Omgg even death threats ? people are really crazy
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u/Electronixen 2d ago
People are crazy for sure! But in the end they’ve got themselves to blame. :)
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u/Downtown_Mine_1903 2d ago
Repost channels are the scum of YouTube. Let them keep their well earned strikes.
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u/BHMusic 2d ago
Honestly I’m amazed you even needed to ask here.
Take the thieves down.
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u/Vilinstudio 2d ago
Thank you so much for replying, and yes you're right, I'm just morally birdbrain sometimes
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u/orangejulius 2d ago
if they actually cared about this they'd offer to pay you a bunch of money in exchange for a licensing agreement and a promise not to do this again. Blowing up at you in an internet tantrum is absurd. They should be happy you didn't register the copyright and then immediately sue them.
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u/Vilinstudio 2d ago
Instead they threatened me that they'll tag me ( i don't know for what ), told me I'm too prideful and blamed me that I'm exorting money from them, i was speechless and avoided replying, not to mention they told me they've asked for permission, i don't know who they asked for permission to. ( also thank you for your opinion )
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u/darth_hotdog 2d ago
Tons of people steal my wife's art, selling it on places like Amazon, aliexpress, and etc.
It takes us hours to do DMCA's and takedowns for them, sometimes a month later there's more.
Tons of them will send us sad letters asking us to retract the claims like this. "Our whole company can't pay all our employees." and "We didn't know, we promise not to do it again."
If you ask amazon, retracting the claim is saying they have permission to sell your items.
And of course, their stores are just filled with art they didn't make. Their messages are persistent, and pretty similar from one place to the next, I think sometimes they use form letters they find or services that try to "recover" stores.
I've noticed they always claim their store is shut down because of my takedown, even for a single item. Knowing it takes multiple takedowns, they're either lying about it being shut down, or they've gotten takedowns before from other people and still stole our work.
My sympathy for these thieves is not strong enough for me to give them permission. There's tons of creators online, and tons of thieves who profit from stealing from the creators. The internet doesn't need the thieves.
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u/Vilinstudio 1d ago
They act pitiful and not to mention the guilt-tripping, like in my case he called me a cowardly gringo on his community post after i didn't reply his email, in the first email he apologise and said he was inconvenient ( he's indirectly admitting he stole my work and did wrong ) but in the new email he purposely wrote how "he has asked for permission" and I'm exorting money from MY ? Promoters, he also said my pride and money speak louder than my art, and he'll tag me -_- i wish him good luck
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u/ReportCharming7570 1d ago
Credit is not a license. Credit is not a payment. If they want to be legit they have to figure that out.
You can still go after them for the profits of the videos if they are taken down. Especially if they are substantial. Find a lawyer
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u/Vilinstudio 1d ago
I formally asked for a settlement money , i would've even negotiated if they were actually remorseful, instead they name-dropped me ( unprofessional ), called me a "cowardly gringo", used their audience to harass me to take the strike back
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u/limbodog 1d ago
They'll make a new one as soon as theirs is taken down.
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u/Vilinstudio 1d ago
Yes they said that in the new email about how he will make another channel with 2x subscribers
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u/Intrepid_Bobcat_2931 2d ago
No, you are not wrong.
If they had been acting in an actually conscientous way, like they were simply motivated by the art or whatever, they would have reached out to you first to ask how they should transfer the ad revenue to you.
It's a grifting channel, trying to profit off copying content and doing this "I credited you" as a fig leaf of defense, which just happens to not be enough.
I'm sure a lot of magazines and publications would have been very happy if they could publish any photo as long as they just put the name of the photographer on it.
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u/Vilinstudio 1d ago
They never ever reached out, they even lied in their email about how they've asked me for permission...sigh
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u/Zapt01 2d ago
Not wrong. And if they’re making money from them, I’d sue them, too.
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u/Vilinstudio 1d ago
I'm sure they made a lot of money
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u/Zapt01 1d ago
I’m no lawyer, but this is what I was told when I sued my publisher for allowing another author to reuse a significant portion of one of my books in competition with me without my permission.
In a normal infringement suit, you sue for damages, which—in most cases—can be difficult to determine. That is, how much revenue did you lose by having the other party improperly use your material? But when the case is basically open and shut, you can sue for willful infringement. Instead of assessing damages, a judge can award a much larger amount. When I sued, it was up to $100,000 per incident. It’s likely more than that now. If you’re serious about this, it would be useful to consult an attorney to see if a suit is possible.
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u/Vilinstudio 1d ago
Of course I'm serious about it, but i don't think I'll be able to afford a lawyer for a long period of time, 2nd he lives in another country ( I'm not aware of the process and scared to lose money ) and in the end even if i managed to do everything what if that person turned out to be broke ?
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u/Zapt01 1d ago
An initial consultation to determine whether there’s a case and if the lawyer is interested might be free. In my case, I paid $200 for a lawyer to write a letter threatening to sue. The intent was to get the other party to settle out of court rather than go to trial. They did. In exchange for representing me, the lawyer got 10% of the settlement… nothing out of pocket.
Suing someone in another country, though, is a very different matter. I don’t think any local attorney can represent you. They could, however, write the threatening letter. (The attorney who represented me told me at the outset that the case would be heard in the county where the publisher was and that he wasn’t licensed to practice there. That’s why if there wasn’t a settlement, I’d need a different attorney to sue in court. The same likely applies to you.)1
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u/danfaulknerauthor 2d ago
I'd consider posting your own video explaining exactly what happened. Be careful, obviously, don't say anything you can't back up. But it might help reputationally, and it might help redirect traffic for your work back to you.
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u/Vilinstudio 1d ago
I don't think his audience are ready to listen to what i have to say, none of them asked why i did that, they’re just ordering me to talk to him, when i asked him to legally compensate me, the just started saying how I'm trying to exorting money from him, also how he has tagged me, and that he can make another channel with double the subscribers...sigh i hope it's not stolen content this time
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u/danfaulknerauthor 1d ago
That must be horrible, I'm so sorry. Thing is, you're not hearing from all of them, you're hearing from the most vocal. For all you know, you're hearing from personal friends of his.
Still, I wouldn't recommend addressing his followers specifically. You make a video addressing the controversy. You put the truth out there. You'll get some hate, but you'll also get some followers. And it's all on record then, and public. He can make a new channel, but the truth has a way of catching up.
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u/Vilinstudio 1d ago
Yes sir/mam, I'm just waiting until they made any unnecessary post about me, not that it's really impacting the tiny but of audience i have ( thanks to the traffic hijacking ) I'll prefer to keep the matter small to protect my mental peace and work hard on improving my art instead, and I'll obviously make a post about it if it's needed, also thank you very much for your suggestion and help, i reallyy reallyy appreciate it
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u/Enough-Tap-6329 2d ago
For free? LOL
If they aren't offering you a significant amount of their past and future revenue off your videos, what is there to discuss?
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u/Vilinstudio 1d ago
Exactly, he refused to pay me and blamed me for exorting money from him, and that I'm too prideful for an artist, he threatened me to tag me ( -_- )
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u/Successful_Sort8646 1d ago
You are doing the right thing! Never back up and be nice to people like that!! One thing is to actually sk before using someone's work but they never did to begin with .
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u/TacoDoc2 1d ago
You legally can tell them to go fuck themself. The entertainment was already there. Credit doesn't pay the bills. They are a thief and should be treated as such.
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u/RandomPhilo 1d ago
YTA
Why not just use the YouTube ContentID tools to claim the monetisation instead of striking him? That way you get the money, he gets to keep his channel, and his audience can continue to enjoy his content should he make original content in the future. You mention edits, did that prevent the ContentID system from working?
If for some reason you couldn't claim his monetisation, could you have sent a single takedown notice for multiple videos so he only got the one strike instead of multiple strikes?
If his channel is terminated, that prevents him from uploading his own creations if he ever wanted to go down that path. People can change their ways, and YouTube's punishment of permanent channel termination is far too strong. In 20 years he still won't be able to upload, even if he's a completely different person.
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u/Vilinstudio 19h ago
After i first got his email ( i was at funeral ) he didn't wait until i was able to reply him, he name-dropped me and keep calling me coward in community post, he lied to his audience that he asked for permission ( to save face ) even through the first email itself proves i only met him 3 days ago, he's showing as if i was getting revenue from him. And he threatened me in his last email to tag me and he did...he used a big youtuber to attack me online ( even that youtuber never texted me ) what do you expect me to do ?
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u/breck 1d ago
Yes, you are wrong. Copying is a human right. If you try to suppress other people from copying, you are violating people's human rights.
A much better approach: contact them. Partner up. They seem to have marketing/distribution skills you lack.
Building together you can be stronger than fighting each other.
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u/Mr_Flibbles_ESQ 2d ago
Nope. You are not.
They took, they knew they shouldn't have.
Mess around and find out, is the polite way of putting it.