A couple of months ago I wrote about a milestone I had achieved in a process with YouTube that got a little flag of what I simply called "trust" applied to my account.  That flag allowed me to proceed down a path that's very rarely opened to content creators as small and independent as me, and I'm happy to report that this week I have successfully reached the destination.

I have been granted use of the Content ID system, YouTube's semi-automated copyright protection framework.  The system is unfortunately much maligned due to a history of hyperactivity and abuse by improperly-trained and overly claim-happy administrators, but in the past year or so it received an important rework that has made it much more fair for everyone.  Besides, I have no intention to use this thing for evil.  I couldn't get away with it if I tried.  Remember, I'm the guy who got a what amounted to a cease & desist order from a LEGO IP agent for reviewing toys that were being sold... at LEGOLAND. 

What Content ID will do for the JANGBRiCKS channel is provide better protection from the vast re-upload industry; people around the world who blatantly copy entire channels worth of videos to try to skim off traffic and revenue from unsuspecting viewers.  Rather than relying on vigilant viewers reporting illegal copies of my work, and then having to use the slow and agonizingly repetitive manual copyright claim process, I will begin to see potential claims brought to me directly in the system, and I can act upon them with a few clicks.

Interestingly, Content ID is not fully automatic like I used to think.  Though I'm fully set up, I still have to manually activate it on a video by video basis, which means it'll be awhile before all of my existing content is protected.  I'm also going to take care to follow the terms of service and code of conduct in the most strict manner, which includes manually self-reporting any segments of videos that feature content that I did not fully create.  Mega Construx videos with little bits of video game footage, for example, need special treatment.  Older reviews with longer intros before narration begins require exclusions where I used licensed music versus tracks I produced myself.  I don't want anything to go sideways with this.

Though I have a lot of grunt work ahead of me, the most harrowing and uncertain part of the process, getting in the door, is behind.