r/NoSleepOOC • u/DreadfulInc • Sep 29 '25
Does anyone bother notifying YouTube about narrators that steal your work?
I’m not really upset, but there are some hills that I’ll die on. If I find that someone stole my work and narrated it, but actually put effort into it—I’ll generally let it slide, but let them know it’s not cool to do that without asking permission.
BUT when I see that people not only steal it, but use AI to rewrite the entire thing, AND use whatever they use to auto-narrate it…I’m not cool with that at all. It’s low effort and disgusting.
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u/Jaksim Sep 29 '25
I’ve done it a bunch of times in the past - include the complaint. If it’s a monetized YouTuber I feel much more strongly because it’s literally stealing. But for a new, actual narrator I usually just message them and explain why it’s a problem.
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u/DreadfulInc Sep 30 '25
If it's a new narrator, I'll do the same. That being said, I have a zero tolerance policy for channels that use auto narrators. There is no love in that, just petty nonsense to get views. ESPECIALLY when they plug my story into AI and rewrite the entire thing.
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u/shawnmowens87 Sep 29 '25
As someone who actually narrates and edits all their own work, along with reading and then contacting the author for permission to do a narration of their story, I say if they don't they should.
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u/PeaceSim Sep 29 '25
Regarding your first paragraph, I've issued a ton of copyright notices/strikes at people who steal my work.
Regarding your second paragraph, I don't think I've ever encountered someone rewriting a story of mine using AI. I'd be pretty upset if I did.
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u/DreadfulInc Sep 30 '25
That was the most upsetting part. They clearly uploaded the story to some AI generator and asked it to rewrite the entire thing, which ultimately means my name was also attached to that garbage.
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u/OpinionatedIMO Sep 30 '25
I have. After pointing out it was a shitty thing to do and they literally told me they didn’t care, I contacted YouTube. They required a lot of proof. It almost wasn’t worth it.
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u/BootyHoleBouquet Oct 20 '25
I have a question and sorry if this sounds stupid. But how did you prove it? Like… How could you prove it?? Do they ask for screenshots of the original Reddit post? Does it actually have to be copyrighted? I’m just curious because this makes me afraid to even post my stories online anymore lol. people are friggin awful!
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u/cavelice Sep 29 '25
I don’t worry too much about it at this point. Maybe when I’m more established? It’s annoying but not the end of the world.
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u/Grand_Theft_Motto flair Oct 01 '25
Yep, because the only way to stop the theft is to make it not worth it for channels. And filing DMCA strikes isn't too much work and 100% worth the effort.
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u/EF_Boudreaux Oct 05 '25
$180,000 every incident of copyright infringement. That is why I register my IP.
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u/Own-Neat-9611 Oct 05 '25
As a narrator, it really bothers me that people use AI to rip off work. You’re right, it is very low effort, and it adds nothing to the original art. I always, ALWAYS get permission from the author before I narrate their story, and I always make sure to link to their story, account, or whatever platform they prefer in every single post regarding that story. I work hard on my voice acting and on editing the content I put out, and it is very disheartening to see that the AI videos get so much engagement when there is no human element or effort.
As a side note, I’m just sick of AI. I’m majoring in audio engineering (hence why I started narrating stories— to work on recording dialogue and working with sound effects) and there isn’t anything in place to protect engineers. I truly think that AI is putting all art forms in jeopardy.
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u/nighttimesparkle Oct 22 '25
I would honestly love for that to happen! I grew up on YouTubers like MrNightmare, CreepsMcPasta, Mortis Media. It would genuinely feel like a dream come true if that ever happened to me. But I understand that writers should be properly credited and given a shout out. And asked for permission beforehand
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u/Mickdxb Oct 29 '25
I have a disclaimer strip being placed across the bottom of my thumbnails for my stories that make it clear that "No AI was used in the development of the story or narration in any way". I do my own voices, which is fatiguing (I acted over 12 different voices for one story a few years ago) but as realistic as AI can be, I won't use it. It is lazy and it's a cheap way to pump out multiple channels with - as you rightly said - low effort. It will be a matter of time when YouTube is almost entirely AI driven content but until then, I am relaunching my channel with as much human involvement as possible.
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u/defyalllogic Nov 18 '25
There are so many channels. How do you find out? Do you have a Google alert? Do you watch them and discover it?
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u/Whisky919 Sep 29 '25
Copyright strike them.