How Does Australia’s Copyright Laws Affect YouTube Marketing?

Today’s media landscape is so oversaturated that almost all original content will have some type of unintended copying or imitation. This complicates how copied content is managed on modern media platforms, as there are a lot of grey areas within Australia’s Copyright laws, dictating what is and what is not legal.

But why are these complicated copyright laws important for professional marketers? Well, if you upload a video that goes against Australian laws, YouTube will not monetise your video. Not only will the content generate no profit but can lead to a copyright lawsuit, which is extremely costly and will take months to process.

Firstly, it is essential to note that copyright laws are dependent on geographical location, if you are uploading or downloading YouTube videos in Sydney, then Australian copyright laws apply. For this reason, this article will only be analysing how Australian Copyright laws affect YouTube Marketing.

Unpacking the YouTube Platform

Throughout 2020 video marketing has consistently been the best performing form of marketing, in terms of engagement. YouTube is the most attractive option for video marketing as the platform is the world’s biggest user-generated content site, with 500 hours of content uploaded every minute.

To understand copyright laws on YouTube, we must first understand the three broad categories of content that are uploaded on the website:

- Original content, which includes no copyrighted works, such as home videos and original music.

- Transformative content, where original content is altered in some way to form something new and creative.

- Copied or ripped content, which are direct clips from an unauthorised sourced material without any element of transformation.

Quite rapidly, YouTube transformed, from a small platform, into a large corporation where billion-dollar companies, such as Sky Sports, Disney, News Corp, Chanel and Sony Music, dominated the platform and drew in the most viewers.

This change in usership, modified the platform’s freedom of use, as such media conglomerates began to pressure YouTube to monetise and copyright protect their original content. Thus, causing YouTube to enforce strict copyright laws, to keep up with the protection that traditional broadcast media offers creators.

How Does Australian Copyright Laws Impact YouTube?

As YouTube is a user-generated site, uploaded content will likely include some type of copyrighted content. The misuse of original content leads to a copyright infringement, where a video is uploaded without the owner’s authorisation.

Copied content puts both the user and YouTube at risk to be sued, as they are infringing on the owner’s exclusive right to their original content. For online platforms like YouTube in Australia, they are protected under the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth).

While the primary use of copyright is to protect the original owner, there are some circumstances which allows copyrighted material to be reproduced. In America, this loophole which deciphers if copyright was infringed or not is called “fair use”. Australia uses the term “fair dealing” which is much more limited and only allows copyrighted material to be used in five ways, for:

- Criticism and review

- Satire or parody

- News

- Legal advice

- Research and study

When deciding if an infringement is fair or not, Australian courts consider very similar questions to Americans. They ask:

- How much of the work had been copied to the original

- Whether the copy devalues the original

- Whether the original creator has been given credit in the copy

Let’s look at a commonly known case study to understand how fair dealing works on YouTube. In Lenz v. Universal Music Corp, a mother uploaded a video to YouTube of her toddler dancing to Prince’s song ‘Let’s Go Crazy’. The video was taken down from the site due to a copyright infringement filed by Universal Music Corp, but unlike most copyright strikes, Lenz sued Universal for misrepresentation.

Lenz won the case as the Judge found the content was a parody of the original; in other words, the content was transformed from the original and did not replace the original. The takedown notice was deemed “unfair” as Universal did not consider ‘fair dealing’ before sending the copyright notice.

However, this is not to say that all videos in this genre clarify for fair dealing or fair use but is determined on a case-to-case basis, further highlighting the complexity of copyright enforcement.

The Reason Behind YouTube’s Copyright Algorithm

The intricacy of regulation can also be seen in YouTube’s first copyright infringement battle, in March 2007, where Viacom International Inc. alleged YouTube circulated 150 000 cases of unauthorised clips. Viacom’s central allegation was that YouTube did not police copyright strikes as thoroughly as they could, allowing illegal copies of The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, and South Park to be accessed freely.

As a result, YouTube takes down the alleged clips, and the charges were dropped, but damage to the platform was already done. After this case, YouTube was forced to administer harsher filter technologies, a system called ‘content identification architecture’, where a tough algorithm searches video and audio content for copyrighted titles, rhymes and lyrics. The new algorithm allows YouTube not to be held responsible for storing infringing copyrighted material from users, as the online company “expeditiously” removes the material when found.

If video ID finds copyrighted work, immediately the copyright owner and the user gets notified. The owner can then choose to “either block it, leave it up, or even start making money from it”. However, there is no in-depth examination into the alleged infringement; therefore, a one-second clip of unauthorised material is treated the same as a one-hour clip.

In sum, YouTube must strongly enforce Australia’s Copyright laws as the platform needs to protect itself from copyright owners. If they do not, YouTube would be hit with so many fines that the platform would no longer economically function and would cease to exist.

The 2020 Consequence of Using Copywritten Content

Due to YouTube’s new algorithms, which harshly scan for copyright infringements, it is extremely common for most copyright owners to abuse their power, as they do not have to check if the content is a genuine copy or not. Therefore, the owners can claim more profits and have complete control over how content is being publicly accessed.

This makes creating and distributing YouTube videos quite tricky due to today’s challenging filter technology; for example, H3H3 a popular YouTube channel, speak openly about their copyright strikes.

Specifically, a three-hour video received a copyright claim because three seconds of unauthorised audio was played, in return H3 submitted a counter-notification based on the “good-faith belief”. H3’s reasoning was accepted by YouTube, allowing H3 to win back the monetisation rights to their three-hour video. Such lengthy videos are costly and require hours of production; when a strike is submitted, the creator loses profits and potential brand awareness, whilst the owner gains.

How Companies can Benefit from YouTube’s Algorithm

YouTube values the uploads of corporations over independent creators as the well-known names generate more watch times and larger profits for YouTube, allowing significant media conglomerates to be easily favoured by the YouTube algorithm.

For example, this can be seen on YouTube’s trending page, as the top ranks are always filled with the channels of large corporations, replacing independent creators who do not have an established brand.

As professional YouTube marketers, there are a few strategies to use that take full advantage of YouTube’s algorithms, which not only avoid copyright infringements but also produce relatively cheap and successful YouTube videos.

- Use copyright-free music. Using YouTube’s Audio Library is a free and bullet-proof way to avoid infringing, as all the content is copyright free.

- Never use any content that you or your company are not authorised to use; this includes small snippets.

- Use Canva to create free video art and photo thumbnails. Canva offers an expansive copyright-free photo library that allows for total customisation to make your channel’s branding unique.

How to Use SEO in Creating Viral YouTube Videos

Catering to YouTube’s algorithm will, without a doubt, lead to viral content. Alike, most digital marketing, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is still the most effective marketing tool for online content.

SEO or organic listing is the art of ranking high on a search engine without using paid advertising. Alike optimising websites with high-quality written content that appeals to Goggle’s algorithm, which allows websites to rank high on search engines organically.

YouTube is also a search engine, and there are many ways you can use SEO to optimise videos and appear at the top of search results. Some examples include:

- Target popular keywords. Whilst you might have ideas for video keywords, it is incredibly beneficial to cross-check with professional SEO software. After you have identified the best-ranking keywords, you should incorporate them into everything from the name of the channel, episode titles, meta descriptions, image filenames, thumbnail artworks, categories, hashtags, transcripts, timestamps, notes and home page descriptions.

- YouTube’s algorithm favours long videos and frequent uploads. The algorithm will favour consistency in uploading, but varied content will keep your audience entertained.

- Incentivise your viewers to subscribe, like and comment. YouTube favours channels with higher engagement as this is a clear sign that your content is like by a large majority of people.

The Key Take-Away for YouTube Marketing

The influence of video marketing, as predicted by CISCO, is due to continuously increase in demand, as by 2022, online videos will make up more than 82% of all consumer internet traffic — 15 times higher than 2017 traffic. Not only are consumers more interested in video content, but the return on investment for video marketing is also outstanding, with 88% of video marketers satisfied with the ROI of their campaigns.

Hence all professional markets should start developing video-based skills now, whilst also develop a sound understanding of Australia’s complex copyright laws, that govern what is and what is not legal on video-sharing platforms such as YouTube. This guide will help your future video campaigns to stay monetised, avoid being abused by copyright owners and keep you out of copyright infringement battles.