YouTube Copyright Match Tool to Notify Creators If Their Videos Are Stolen

Google-owned YouTube is introducing a feature called "Copyright Match Tool" designed for YouTube creators who have problems with unauthorised re-uploads of their content.

With the new feature, after a new video is uploaded, YouTube would run a scan to see if there is any other video that resembles the uploaded video very much or is the same and if there is a "match", it would appear on the "matches" tab, YouTube wrote in a blog post on Thursday.

"We've been testing this tool with creators for nearly a year to make it safe and effective for the whole community," the company said.

If in case a match of an already uploaded content is found, the original uploader would have the option of getting in touch with the other creator or request YouTube to remove the re-uploaded content.

The feature would start rolling out from next week to YouTube creators with more than one lakh subscribers.

"As this is a powerful feature, we will monitor usage closely and will continue to expand over the coming months with the long-term goal of making it available to every creator in the 'YouTube Partner programme," the blog post added.

"YouTube Partner Programme" lets creators with 4,000 watch hours in the previous 12 months and over a 1,000 subscribers, monetise their content on YouTube.