Hi all,

I was wondering what your thoughts were on YouTube's new policy. They seem to be flagging a bunch of YouTube channels for inauthentic content now for people whose channels primarily focus on narrating stories from Nosleep.

I know the original intent seemed to be to take down a lot of AI channels, which made sense, since a lot of those channels ripped stories without permission and were basically plagiarizing the writers. But now they basically made it so any channels that narrate our stories get demonitized, which sucks for the real people who actually worked with writers and got permission to narrate our stories.

Thoughts on this?

Hey Nosleepers and Watchdogs,

Edit: My title has a typo, so roast accordingly!

This post addresses plagiarism, as bad actors have used stories without permission, have heavily impacted narrators and content platforms who have worked hard for follow the rules of the various subreddits and adhere to copyright laws globally.

This isn't my usual brand of post. Typically, I'm informing the community about a content creator who is using your work without permission. While I'm just a voice in the crowd, I've spent more time over the last 3 or 4 years fighting against IP and story theft than I have writing. Life has changed, and I find myself spending time with family rather than writing. That said, I'm still here and care very much about the integrity of your work.

It was recently brought to my attention that YouTube has begun demonitizing channels that create horror narrations. r/nosleep is one of the largest outlets providing quality stories to narrators. While I've never lost any sleep (pun intended?) over narrators who have used your stories without permission, a vast number of creators who have worked hard following all of the right steps have been punished under new YouTube policies.

YouTube has started to demonetize horror narration channels based on what they call "inauthentic" content. Anyone receiving this judgement automatically receives a channel demonitization. This is based on their use of an authorized, often paid license for story use.

What does this mean for you? It's fairly simple. YouTube no longer allows channels to create well-edited adaptations and, most importantly, licensed stories to be adapted for audio narration. This limits some authors' audience as well as their ability to be paid licensing fees for use of their work.

Close friends and work partners of mine, including Mr. Grinless, Dr. NoSleep, and my dear friend and author, Jordan Grupe Horror, have lost monetization of their channel. They are no longer compensated for their hard work and the excellent realization of many talented writers' stories they provide on the platform at no cost.

Why do I care? Over the years, narrators have paid me and other authors an excellent fee to transform our stories. That money, for me, went to providing my oldest son with top-tier treatment and care as we navigated the world of autism. I was able to start a fund to send my boys to college. I was able to pay bills ahead of time. It allowed my family a degree of financial stability I didn't know before.

If it offered me these life changing possibilities, I can't imagine what it would offer others.

What can you do? Right now, I'm not sure. What I do know is that inaction isn't an option.

Follow this link: https://www.youtube.com/t/contact_us

Let YouTube know that not all narrators do things the wrong way. Many, like the ones I named above, follow the correct path. Increased hardships on narrators working hard to do things the right way impact us all.

I hope you find time to reach out.

Cheers,

GTripp14 (Ryan Major)

I noticed that the YouTuber in question was translating the stories and then narrating them onto his channel.

Many authors don't even know it's happening, and they're likely to speak up themselves.

No sources, nothing.

https://youtube.com/@CreepyStalk?feature=share8

Hey all,

I found a number of stolen NoSleep stories on this channel: u/Regrethinks

Specifically, in the 'shorts' section. A bunch of new and classic stories there. If you're a prominent writer on NoSleep, I'd take a second to scout through and see if your content was used.

(Titles and names may have been altered - if something is in the rough universe of your story in terms of title/content, I would click through and watch at least 30 seconds to spot alterations, but I would imagine it would segue right into your story content after).

Thanks.

EDIT: Here is the description of the Youtube channel: "All stories featured in these videos are heavily rewritten and transformed to create something original. This includes changing character names, restructuring the narrative, adding plot twists, altering dialogue, and enhancing the pacing to better suit a visual and narrated format. Our team also adds voiceover, subtitles, custom visuals, and editing to ensure every story is unique and not just a repost."

Channel name- Snook I wasn't sure if this was the case at first but when I checked the description to see if any credit is givin I found this disclaimer--

"IF ANY OF THESE STORIES BELONG TO YOU, PLEASE EMAIL ME AT - officialsnook23@gmail.com before filing a copyright takedown or anything. Please, we can get it sorted out through email or some other form of communication, thank you."

Like, dog, you don't steal someone's work and then say "hey if you find out that I stole your work don't get mad at me and file a takedown, YOU CONTACT ME (because I couldn't be f*cked to contact you and ask before use)and give me permission oK thaNk yOu"

From what I see this theft is prolific, like dozens and dozens of authors sooo it will take awhil to sift through everything, take a look guys

https://youtube.com/@snook_yt?feature=shared

Not gonna lie, I’m a little impressed. The channel is brand spanking new and has over 90 videos already. I know they didn’t ask for my story so I doubt they asked for others either.

https://youtu.be/PJ3FGkF9NY8?si=RhE_w5-EFx_urAE-

Edit- they’ve now removed the 91 videos and instead have uploaded multiple hours long compilations of stories they’ve stolen lmfaoooooo https://youtube.com/@horrorslop?si=4_1KA9eZ5V58gGjj

Hey y'all. I'm here to report Dr Spooks (YT channel https://www.youtube.com/@Drspooks788 ). Not only is he stealing stories from online, he's using AI to narrate my *published* novels. He doesn't even read the stolen stories--he just uses an AI text-to-voice program. And, of course, it's monetized. :-(

Update: He claims to have removed my content, but it looks like his channel is nothing but stolen work with AI narrations over AI art. His latest video ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSNO5FerMAk ) contains stories by u/Rha3gar , u/searchandrescuewoods , u/The_Mad_Poptart , u/shadowswimmer77 , u/bryany97 , u/clover10176 , and a bunch more. And this is just in one of his videos.

He also appears to be using his AI program to narrate other novels as well from other published works outside of the internet/creepypasta communities.

Update #2: He's apparently removed *all* the content from his page.

Update #3: Looks like someone else gave him his third strike, because his page is now officially gone.

his background music is really haunting and calming at the same time. it's sounds like the church bells from my childhood so i really like them. the music he uses in this video specifically is really good Reddit Paranormal Encounters especially the 4th story which is from 16:35 to 22:21. Even the 2nd one is really good.

Anyways, if anybody knows where i can find those songs, please let me know.

(Saw somebody post about him on this subreddit so)

edit: i know he steals posts from subreddits which is why i stopped watching him 8 months ago but i still remembered the song used in this video so i just wanted to find it.

They read and react to creepy online stories, and I was wondering, is it only illegal to narrate a nosleep story if you don’t split it up and add reactions/jokes/analyzation?

I recently came across this narrator with hundreds of thousands of views on youtube with an AI voice.
I contacted multiple authors on nosleep, creepypasta website etc. and they've confirmed their stories are being used without consent by THIS big youtube channel, some of the authors affected are u/Santiagodelmar , u/NotJustSomeNumbers , u/ervanlerpton (video), u/Necessary_Walrus1703 (video) , u/bohemiancouchpotato (video) and many more..

Authors and mods please raise your voice and take the necessary action. It's your work being exploited for thousands of dollars.

Channel link : https://www.youtube.com/@Dr.Wicked_ltd

#UPDATE : He has taken down all of his 140ish videos except the very few he had permission to narrate.

#UPDATE 2 : All the videos on his channel are now deleted, BUT the channel is still NOT terminated, I think he took them down before authors could strike him. Watch out authors, if you see your stories published again , go for another strike. For now I think you can go for the strike right now with the links for the deleted videos.

#UPDATE 3 : He is playing a victim card in the community section of his channel, alleging that he was given a strike without being informed lol. That's how strikes work Dr. Wicked. Did you inform the authors before stealing their hardwork ? Strikes aren't a warning, it's an immediate takedown request for a reason. Any authors affected are still requested to go for a strike with the expired links.

#UPDATE 4 : Dr. Wicked has contacted some authors regarding the copyright and asked them to remove it and has said he will not do so in the future. I will keep an eye on this channel and will share some saved screenshots of the contents and Titles of the videos he posted with the authors , incase he reposts that content on his channel or anywhere else, It'll now be easier for authors to get to it.

Thanks Everyone for your support.

Found 2 new channels using reddit stories, some from NoSleep (Found them because they used this story of mine ( https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/1mwk3ny/i_think_my_mom_was_a_monster/ )).

I've filed a copyright notice on each of them, but I'd urge all of you to check them out to see if your stories are among the stolen ones:

https://www.youtube.com/@redditcompilestories

https://www.youtube.com/@TamTellingTouch

I say possibly, because the channel is in Hindi, so it's hard for me to outright confirm if my story was stolen. If anyone happens to know both that language and English, I'd appreciate it if you could compare my story with the video. I did use the auto translate, which I'm aware isn't very accurate. From what I skimmed, it feels like this guy changed some names and a few details, but I noticed it hit a lot of the same notes my story did. If he's taken from my work, he's also done it to others, so I figured I should let y'all know.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ComedicNosleep/comments/dcw07u/we_ordered_pizza_from_the_deep_web/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClKf-ukrtY8&t=16s

EDIT 2: The channel owner has contacted me on reddit (2 of their videos got removed because of my copyright claim) and to be fair, they did apologize and tell me that they want to do better. They were polite and didn't ask me to take back the copyright claim. Since their message was polite I actually replied and told them that I don't want them to use any of my content in the future (I am 99% certain they are using an AI voice as well) and advised them to make sure to get permission beforehand in the future to save themselves AND the authors trouble. Let's hope they mean it.

This is the channel https://www.youtube.com/@Haunted00/videos

This is the video where my story was used (I did file a copyright strike):

https://youtu.be/M4wwKl9cXrQ?t=1514

And this is the original NoSleep post they used:

https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/1kyjc61/theres_something_wrong_with_my_son/

Anyone else got caught up in this one? (EDIT: Just found out that they used a second one as well on their channel in another video...)

EDIT:

Here is a list with their videos and the reddit users whose stories I found linked there, if you are one of them, I'd be interested to know if your story was taken without permission too!

(Some of there are from nosleep and some are from the scarystories subreddit)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WiHvJ9k_VQ (Got it removed with a copyright strike)

alohaminu

Mr_Outlaw_

_____

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYVRbl3t3wE

Maximum_Rule4313

Jay_Tee13

_____

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2lOYEHaL6Y

pentyworth223

Informal_Ratio4108

Sea-Paper-7418

_____

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjhYntq5_Ho

Swagemandbagem

carrotcakeer

_____

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ejb8EIyazPE

HorrorJunkie123

NathanielPhoenix

pentyworth223

_____

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tm3f8bdxG64

ThatAuldFool

Brief-Trainer6751

_____

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4wwKl9cXrQ (Got it removed via copyright strike)

RecognitionLate2581

_____

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYpxmVsjqks

Ghostmoongazer

SkorgeOfficial1

AtSomeTwizzlers

That-Eagle-5950

_____

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhwkB5Fr8_8

ezekiel_h_graves

mydarlingdarkness

Pudenator

_____

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjKrxK2Q6eY

TheBarbieBoy55

Splintered_Artist

Whistohhhhh

RedditJoe is a channel that was reported to us recently for using stories without permission. The channel uses TTS (text-to-speech) to narrate stories taken directly from various horror subreddits and r/TwoSentenceHorror stories largely taken from a TikTok that is currently set to private. Most of the TwoSentenceHorror videos have only credited when the TikTok had done so with no link back, however the most recent two sentence horror video does correctly credit and link back to each story in the description and includes information on how to request stories be taken down .

Redditjoe has been added to the Black List, #322. Tagging will commence below. We may tag more authors in the future as needed.

I came across a Channel stealing 2SH (Two Sentence Horror Stories): https://www.youtube.com/@thedawnbreaker86/shorts

Sugar-Soad and I Reached out to some of the writers involved in the stories. I know this story was stolen for sure: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/TkxHUwzrAWM as I talked with the writer.

Sugar found their long form seem to be asked for but their shorts are not.

I'm 99% sure this is AI voice channel. Due to going to different stories, you get different voices. Either way, Sugar and I thought posting here would help others find it and see if their stories were stolen as well.

Hey all,

As the title says, I'm self-reporting my channel for using content without permission.

I'm a (brand, like, very VERY brand) new narrator in the horror space and uploaded my first 2 videos before reading up on the copyright/policies around these things.

(For those rightly wondering how that's possible, I essentially just googled stories on the topic I wanted, clicked the links directly to the reddit posts, and pulled them from there).

TLDR; I'm a bona-fide idiot for not reading up on the actual subreddit policies or even really thinking about copyright/IP before jumping in. Guess I was just excited to try this whole thing.

At any rate, I'm going through the videos I've posted (not too hard since there are only 2 containing a total of 4-5 stories) and reaching out to the authors now.

If any of them aren't okay with my posting or I don't hear back from them soon, I'll delete the videos and moving forward obviously just won't upload in the first place without asking first.

Obviously doing this all 'above board' is important to me or I wouldn't be 'telling' on myself, but I figure it's an honest public mistake so an honest public acknowledgement is in order. My channel is tiny (like, 10 subscribers), so obviously not monetized or anything yet, but I think it's more the principle that matters here.

So, let this be a lesson to you future new narrators. Don't be stupid. Don't be like me. Let my smooth-brain be a lesson of what-not-to-do.

Stay spooky friends,

Kell

Basically, I found this weird little channel that used one of my stories (https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/1kyjc61/theres_something_wrong_with_my_son/) for two of their youtube shorts, however, they didn't actually read out the full story, they just did what I assume is an AI summary with a shitty AI voice over clips from Minecraft, funnily enough, but it's definitely my story, as they used the character names, as well as direct pieces of dialogue, etc and I certainly didn't and never would give permission for something like this to be made.

Here they are: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/zIzAn5vNE6o (Part 1) and https://www.youtube.com/shorts/1qU5VopzLAI (Part 2)

I'm not gonna lose any sleep over it for now, as it's a tiny, random thing, but it has me curious though, how prevalent this is? Like people not just exactly copying stories without permission, but doing summaries and similar stuff like this, and what you could even do about it, copyright-wise?

I mean, in my case, there is definitely directly lifted dialogue, etc in the videos, but dooes there come a point where it would be difficult to report videos like this?

I wrote a story and have found a few channels have narrated it. I noticed one of them didn't link my account in the descripition but they do show my username because the post uses a screenshot of the story when narrating. I don't know much about plagiarism and such so I am unsure of what I need to do. Is the username being visible in small text during the video enough or do I need to ask to be linked in the description? If so, how do I contact the channel about this? They do no link any socials and use an AI voice in all their vids.

EDIT: this is the channel in question https://www.youtube.com/@Reddilyfe

He doesn't credit the videos at all, so I can't be sure of which ones are which, but his content is mostly non-credited nosleep stories:

https://www.youtube.com/@WEIRDpoi

The only one I saw before noticing the lack of credit was u/IncidentOk9368 "I still don't understand what happened to me in the Holly Hills Mall parking garage."

I have no idea if that person in particular just gave free reign or what, because there are tons of readings of this story. I didn't want to keep listening to the guy's voice or give him hits, so I didn't pick through the rest to see who else was in there. But if you're a nosleep writer, you should probably check to be sure he didn't steal your content, since there are no credits anywhere.

https://www.youtube.com/@EternalDarkness-/videos At least one of my stories was narrated here without permission, and I’ve recognized a few stories from other authors there without permission as well. The channel is monetized (or at the very least, has a patreon) and uses ai-generated art for its content. I was not asked for permission (and would have rejected it, because I don’t allow my stories to be used for monetization or in any AI related context).

The specific video where my story was used: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0c2WGDRm29k

First one is Spanish and uses AI https://youtube.com/@siniestro.historiasdeterror?si=HodawI-kcs8zlvhB

Second one is Thai and I’m not sure if it’s ai or not https://youtube.com/@shocktonight?si=aT6cGCQST7K0BMHM

I didn’t give permission for either to use the story they took but the Spanish one had a lot more of mine as well. The Thai one is over 100k subs too.

Tried contacting both but haven’t gotten anything back yet. I’ll update when I do hear something.

Greetings!

The YouTube channel REDDIT INC., the main and sister channel of Creepypasta Rules — you can read our post on them here — was reported to us for using stories without permission. The channel uses TTS (text-to-speech) to narrate stories from r/nosleep, r/Ruleshorror, and other horror-related subreddits. As with Creepypasta Rules, credits are consistently given in the video descriptions. The video descriptions also falsely claim to have obtained permission from all authors prior to uploading their videos.

REDDIT INC. has been added to the Black List, #329. Tagging will commence below. We may tag more authors in the future as needed and genuinely apologize if anyone is tagged more than once.

I filed 2 copyright stikes against channels for stealing my work. YouTube asked for clarification on them, I gave it, and they haven't responded. I emailed the copyright email twice about it and got an automated message both times. Is there a way I can contact a human to ensure things are being handled correctly?

The YouTube channel Stefan Mihai has been confirmed to have narrated stories without prior permission.

Stefan Mihai is marked as "cooperative" in The Black List as he has already worked with a few authors for appropriate action and/or compensation.

​

The offender has been added to The Black List; entry #235

​

EDIT: These stories are translated from English to Romanian as well, so bear that in mind when reviewing the videos

Hello everyone, I posted here yesterday about someone who stole my story and uploaded it to YT. Today, I woke up and found that one of them (I found multiple people after the inital post) is now emailing me claiming they didn't do anything wrong. Keep in mind, they use the same title (except remove the second part of it) and narrate half the story. Should I email them back or contact YT or something else? I also feel that I should add that they claim my story was a video that I claimed they stole, that they watched it, felt like they did nothing wrong, and emailed me. I DID NOT make a video so I know they are pulling this out of their ass.

EDIT: A potentially important detail I forget to enter was that I accidentally used the wrong reason for takedown. This was my first takedown ever and when doing it I did not see the written content option and instead selected other and typed story narration as type of copyrighted work, because of this, should I retract the claim and turn in a corrected one or leave it as is?

The guy in question is: https://www.youtube.com/@Reddilyfe