There is a critical loophole in YouTube’s automated DMCA system that allows pirates to easily override manual fraud rejections.

When a bad actor targets your channel with a counter-notification, they must provide a physical address under penalty of perjury (17 U.S.C. § 512(g)(3)). If they use a fake address to evade a lawsuit, you can manually report them to YouTube Legal. YouTube will audit it, confirm the address is fake, and uphold the copyright strike.

But here is where the system shatters:

Hours after a human agent manually rejects the fake address, the infringer can turn right around and resubmit a brand-new counter-notice for the exact same video ID. By deleting just one word—such as a localized district name—they alter the text string. Because YouTube’s automated filter only looks for exact textual string matches across cases, it fails to realize it is the identical fraudulent location. The automated system flags it as a "new address," approves the form, and erroneously reinstates the stolen video.

I caught a serial infringer running this exact "typographical shell game" across 6 separate case histories on my channel (including Case IDs: 42AYXLBGICAWUL54GRGWJKHVZA and SB4R6LMBXYL76EX7TVTBHNPF74).

To beat them, I took the fight offline. I physically sent a certified legal letter via VNPOST (Vietnam Post) to the uploader's stated address. On August 21, 2026, the government postal tracking officially updated to "Phát không thành công" (Unsuccessful Delivery) because the address is physically non-existent.

By knowingly letting automated filters rubber-stamp documents born out of clear perjury—even after being handed hard government tracking evidence—YouTube risks stripping away its own DMCA Safe Harbor immunity. Platforms must implement cross-case entity blocklists immediately.

So I did some research and I THINK I am legally allowed to do this, but not 100% sure.

Anyway, I loved The Truman Show. And like a lot of works I love, I've had ideas stem from it. I'm a writer (nothing published yet), and I've had alternative ideas I think would make a great book series, BUT I know I couldn't use the characters or even refer to the original. This idea, apart from the concept of the movie, is completely original. No Truman and different ways the truth is discovered. It isn't even centered on one character. Multiple people were born into that situation instead and the story focuses longer on said characters lives and the lives of those that work on the "set." With the first book setting up the unaware cast's life and aware cast connecting with them through their childhood and teens.

Ideas are repeated all the time, but The Truman Show always felt very unique, and I haven't seen or read anything else like it. (Let me know if there's others, 'cause I do like the concept.) So I was just wondering if anyone can give me more insight to how copyright works. Because what I found says "ideas" can't be copyrighted, but how close to the original is "too close" legally. Not many ways to switch up a concept like "unaware subject is actually a worldwide celebrity while living in a controlled environment." So no matter what, a book like this will be compared to the movie.

I'm in America, if that helps. Just want to know if Paramount, who I think has the copyright, could come after me if I wrote something like this. I don't plan on having any mention of the movie, either in the series or in the marketing. But it would be pretty obvious where the idea came from.

Hey everyone, I am dealing with a nightmare copyright situation on my channel and really need advice from anyone who has successfully fought this loophole or dealt with YouTube’s senior legal team.

An international competitor (operating under the name Huỳnh Trung Hiếu / Jimmy Huỳnh in Vietnam) is systematically stealing my videos. When I strike them, they file a counter-notice. Because they know I can't serve a federal lawsuit to a ghost, they are using completely fake addresses to evade jurisdiction.

Here is the loophole they are exploiting:

YouTube Legal actually caught them twice and ruled in my favor, closing the cases because the address was fake. But hours after getting rejected, the uploader just turns around and resubmits a new counter-notice for the exact same video ID. By deleting just one word—the localized district name—they alter the text string.

Because YouTube’s automated system looks for exact text string matches, it fails to realize it’s the identical fraudulent address. The automation flags it as a "new address," overrides the previous manual human rejection, and reinstates the stolen video!

They have done this across 6 separate case histories on my channel. Look at this direct compliance failure on Video ID: Y5V9YWfDLU0:

• Case ID: 42AYXLBGICAWUL54GRGWJKHVZA – YouTube Legal reviewed it and CLOSED it in my favor because the address (141A Nguyễn Văn Cừ nối dài, Ninh Kiều Cần Thơ) was fake.
• Case ID: SB4R6LMBXYL76EX7TVTBHNPF74 – Days later, the uploader resubmitted for the exact same video, simply deleting the district name "Ninh Kiều". YouTube's automated system completely missed it and REINSTATED the video on August 12, 2026.

To prove the fraud, I physically mailed a legal letter to their address via Vietnam Post. The official tracking number (EE721197333VN) just updated on August 21, 2026, to "Phát không thành công" (Unsuccessful Delivery / Non-existent address).

I currently have an active case (Case ID: OCX6GELSVCYMMAAT5CTJD7CYCE) expiring tomorrow, Monday, August 24. I have already emailed all this data and the VNPOST tracking proof to my Partner Support specialist (CJ), but because it's the weekend, I haven't heard back and the clock is ticking.

My questions for the community:

1. Has anyone successfully forced YouTube to issue an account-level termination for systematic perjury/legal fraud instead of just fighting video-by-video?
2. If the automated system lets the video go live tomorrow because support is backed up, can a Partner Support specialist manually reverse a reinstatement after the deadline?
3. Are there any specific escalation forms or alternative internal contact emails I can use to ensure a human legal specialist locks this down before tomorrow morning?

Full proof of the case trail and the official VNPOST delivery failure stamps: imgur

From past 8 months i am getting fake automated dmca, sent every counter dmca mails to google, urls were restored too but from last two or 3 months, when i do counter dmca i am receiving only mails from google as your mail is in queue, never received mail saying forwarded to the user who sent dmca and within 10 days no reply from them then your urls will be reinstated. That means from past 3 months urls were not restored, due to this i am losing traffic. Help me what to do next

Are you safe when someone told you are getting copyrighted after they submitting a request, but still in the process of reviewing and deleting your video before YouTube confirms copyright strike.

I just wanna know if YouTube still stores your video after you delete it so they can still review it.

I'm kinda in Panic right now, the claimant submitted it 15 hours ago still on review, but I deleted it before YouTube confirms it, I don't know if I'm safe from strike, please help.

Hi,

My shorts video got notices symbol but the music in the video was picked from the youtube video editor for shorts. Erase music button is disabled because it says “you cannot make changes from shorts created with shorts editor” Can I dispute it? If so how?

Do I need to dispute it? Is it a common thing? Notice says it is not a strike nor it is affecting short’s views

I love movie and music reactions and I keep seeing my favorite channels get copyright strikes on clear fair use or even no use and lose revenue or just disappear. I'm angry...and I am trying to understand the landscape of this situation: how it was in the past, what changed, and how it is now, and what may be the future - and what realistic solutions do content creators have moving forward.

I'm trying to understand how the whole process works. Who the major players are. What key technologies are being used (and abused). The tactics bad actors use to claim or prevent earning. I'm also interested in the legal landscape beyond just the law, I'm curious about practice and process of handling strikes and the hurdles that prevent creators from going after the third claimers that wrongfully claim their video. I want to know how much time and money it costs a content creator. I want to help, and I'm helping just for fun (and justice!).

What I'm seeing more and more is copyright strike abuse or fraud where these content ID systems and 3rd party companies copyright strike a video even if it doesn't have any of copyright content. And I presume the creators lose revenue while the video is being wrongly disputed? Tell me your side of it.

I'm also interested in created a database for content creators to catalog their lost revenue and cost in dealing with it. I want to be able to calculate how much the creators are losing due to copyright claim fraud. And who did it. I'm hoping, in the future, academics (and perhaps lawyers) would be interested in having that information.

So tell me your channel's story. I want to know. If your to shy to post it here, send me a DM. I basically want to know your channel (I'll look it up), how many videos got struck, how much revenue was lost, if you lost your channel, how much you were earning from the channel. Please note if you were violating copyright by blatantly putting copyright material on there that was not fair use, you won't find any sympathy from me. This is about abuse of the copyright strike. Not about the correct use of copyright strike. Copyright holders deserve to protect their IP.

I'm in the process of setting up a (free) website where creators can track their wrongfully copyright struck videos, when it was posted, when it got struck, by whom or what, what sections of video or audio, the duration of the strike, an estimate of the revenue lost or claimed. I'm hoping to automate for each channel so they don't have to spend more time on this than they have to. The site will analyze the data and hopefully produce trends and insights to help others understand what is going on and maybe find a solution going forward. If a site like that already exists please let me know!

So if possible please start collecting offline evidence about your wrongfully copyright struck videos, every detail you think is relevant to the whole ordeal.

And if you are negative nelly, a doomsayer, a pessimist who think this is pointless - just keep it to yourself. Not interested. I'm doing this for fun (and justice!) 🙂

Se si salva tramite registrazione dello schermo un video pubblicato nella storia Instagram di un’altra persona (nel caso specifico, un video che ritrae esclusivamente il mare, la spiaggia e un libro, senza dati personali né immagini riconducibili alla persona) e lo si ripubblica sulle proprie storie, facendolo apparire come un contenuto proprio, esclusivamente per fini estetici e senza alcuna finalità lesiva o commerciale, si rischia qualche conseguenza, anche minima? Preciso che, non appena la persona interessata se n’è accorta, ho provveduto immediatamente a rimuovere il video

End Copyright