YouTube News

Nicholas Light kept channel after YouTube lifted copyright strikes

Remove Your Media's copyright complaints had temporarily pulled more than 60 reaction videos.

Nicholas Light said in a September 6 upload that his channel faced deletion after Remove Your Media filed more than a dozen copyright strikes against his anime reaction videos. The complaints temporarily removed over 60 videos from a channel with about 1.3 million subscribers.

YouTube later lifted the strikes and told Light his channel would not be deleted. He posted a follow-up thanking other creators and viewers for drawing attention to the dispute.

Ron and Michelle Jackson, who run Rice & Ginger, said their account had been flagged hundreds of times and warned it could be deleted within days. Their channel remained online as of September 10.

Anime reaction videos usually pair creator commentary with edited or blurred show footage. Creators argue the format is fair use. Evan F. Stone, a legal representative for Remove Your Media, said commentary in this context does not make the use transformative. The firm reports thousands of allegedly infringing links every day and has named Viz Media among its anime clients.

Jack Malon, YouTube's policy communications manager, said the platform does not decide who owns rights to a clip or whether a video qualifies as fair use. YouTube removes content when it receives a valid legal takedown request and lets creators submit counter-notifications if they believe a removal was wrong.

Other anime reaction channels aired similar complaints in a YouTube support thread. Light's channel stayed up after YouTube cleared the strikes.