This article will give you some insight on the sort of things we look for in applications. We are very serious in making sure partnered channels are free from potential copyright issues.

Copyright Strikes- But I don’t have any!

Many applicants get confused when their channel is denied for copyright, but they are completely free of any actual strikes. In short, the system isn’t perfect, not every copyright issue is immediately given a strike. You could get one months after uploading, or potentially never. You can still be violating copyright, regardless of strikes.

But I’m only using 15 seconds or less from ____ song!

Even short clips have the potential to receive claims or strikes.  Please also note that copyright content remains a concern to the network whether a creator has received a strike for it or not.

There are many excellent resources for royalty free music. Just to name a few:

https://creativecommons.org/legalmusicforvideos
http://www.freestockmusic.com/
http://freemusicarchive.org/
http://www.videoblocks.com/

I got denied for copyright, but I have no strikes and I’m using royalty free music.

There are many things that can lend to copyright problems besides obvious things, such as music or movie clips. Here is a list of some things that can cause issues:

Using art without permission
Official trailers (even short clips)
Videos full of cut scenes
Re-hosting of content from another YouTuber
Using audio from trailers or cut scenes that have not been edited in any way
"Parodies" that use vocals or music directly from the song it’s parodying
Vine/funny/fail/etc compilations where not everything featured is yours
ANY TV/movie/commercial/etc clips, regardless of length

Community channels, are they okay?

In short, nope. We want all of our partners to showcase their own work, not to upload content from other players. Regardless of permission, we are not interested in partnering channels that do this. It can be a copyright hazard, and it’s not the unique content we’re looking for from gamers.

I got a copyright strike, can I still get a partnership?

No, unfortunately. YouTube does not allow any network to send invites to channels with outstanding copyright strikes. You will need to either dispute them, or complete copyright school: https://www.youtube.com/copyright_school, after which your strikes will begin to disappear within 6 months.

 We want all of our partners to succeed and get recognition for their own work. We hope this guide will help you in getting your channel partnered!