The online video-sharing giant, YouTube, has recently employed a new copyright law that allows content creators on the platform worldwide to have flexibility in terms of international copyright policies.
This implementation of the new copyright law was applied after a content creator named Mark Fitzpatrick has struck war with a giant animation firm, Toei Animation, that issued over 150 copyright claims against the creator’s YouTube video uploads about various anime and manga reviews that the firm believed had disrespected their company’s rights. Toei Animation’s copyright claims demanded YouTube to delete Mark Fitzpatrick’s YouTube videos.
Amid the dispute between the content creator and the animation firm, YouTube decided to step up and support Mark Fitzpatrick by allowing him to keep his videos within territories with more allowances for fair use; and have them removed in countries with stricter copyright policies, such as Japan, where Toei Animation is situated.
YouTube’s new copyright law has evidently helped not just Mark Fitzpatrick but a lot of other content creators worldwide who might have been undergoing the same setbacks in terms of fair use policies.
The decision of YouTube has surely favoured millions of YouTube channel owners and content creators globally, considering that issues regarding fair use policies are not unusual. The new copyright law would help YouTubers to fight for their rights, specifically if they encounter the same incident that Mark Fitzpatrick went through.
In a recent video upload regarding the incident, Mark Fitzpatrick expressed his hopefulness regarding copyright owners and video content creators to possibly create a collaborative relationship in the future if both parties would be open to it.
Many problems concerning YouTube’s fair use policies have long been faced by millions of YouTube creators worldwide, with content ranging from informative videos up to the music and film industries.
The wide range of sectors within the video-sharing community has struggled with different incidents of copyright infringement and trademark issues that have affected them profit-wise, the message they want to share to viewers, and the overall YouTube culture that copyright owners have gatekept.
Nonetheless, the recent incident might be an eye-opener for the community that there is still a chance to create content despite the copyright disputes, only if the situation could arise possible and working solutions that could work for both affected parties, such as with the case of Fitzpatrick and Toei Animation.
