---
title: 'How VTubers Can Protect Themselves Against Copyright Claims'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=anWDUnSZoQk'
video_id: 'anWDUnSZoQk'
date: 2026-07-31
duration_sec: 2424
---

# How VTubers Can Protect Themselves Against Copyright Claims

> Source: [How VTubers Can Protect Themselves Against Copyright Claims](https://youtube.com/watch?v=anWDUnSZoQk)

## Summary

In this stream, Senpai explains how copyright claims work for VTubers and streamers, covering why game music triggers claims, how to research safe games and music, the dispute process, and legal ways to protect yourself without exposing personal information.

### Key Points

- **Claims vs strikes** [00:01] — Senpai clarifies that he often says 'strikes' when he means 'claims', and the video covers both.
- **Fake copyright claims on game videos** [00:42] — A Discord member got a third-party copyright claim on an Ultimate Doom playthrough; third parties claim anyone who plays that level/song.
- **Game music is usually licensed, not owned** [01:24] — Gaming companies often outsource music to labels/composers and buy a license to use it in the game — not to broadcast it on YouTube, Twitch, or Spotify.
- **Turn off music or check company policy** [03:50] — If you're worried, turn off in-game music or check if the company permits streaming; World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy allow it.
- **Research before streaming** [05:36] — Search Google, YouTube, and Twitter to see if other streamers have received strikes for a game; if hundreds stream it without issues, it's probably fine.
- **Third-party enforcement is common** [08:23] — Companies sometimes outsource copyright enforcement to third parties, so claims may not come directly from the game studio.
- **Filing a copyright claim is easy** [09:58] — On a scale of 1-10, it's a 1: Google's form only needs your content type, link, relationship, and a name — no proof of identity.
- **Dispute process basics** [14:07] — If you dispute a claim, the claimant has 30 days to respond; if they don't, you automatically win.
- **Protecting your legal identity** [19:22] — If it goes to court, you must give your legal name/address; use an LLC linked to a PO box or your lawyer's details instead.
- **Ad revenue is held during disputes** [25:01] — YouTube holds all ad revenue for the disputed video until it's resolved and pays the correct party.
- **Fair use myths** [28:20] — 'No copyright infringement intended' and claiming 'fair use' don't protect you if you upload a one-to-one copy without transformation.
- **Distributor errors happen** [34:21] — Harris Heller's StreamBeats/DistroKid incident sent thousands of claims, all later retracted.

### Conclusion

The key takeaway is to do your due diligence: research games and music before streaming, dispute fake claims quickly, and protect your identity with an LLC or lawyer — while accepting that no method is 100% safe from copyright claims.

## Transcript

senpai and in today's video we're going to be talking about copyright claims now the video you are about to watch was a vaude at one point and i'm gonna make it into well this video there are times where i say copyright strikes instead of
copyright claims so something sounds a little bit confusing or doesn't seem a little bit right i probably meant copyright claims then copyrights tricks just blurt out what's in my mind i'm sorry
the video fight strikes and how to deal with them this was brought up in the discord a few days ago
a member said what do i do with fake copyright claims actually let's post this in here let's post this in here shall we i got one on my ultimate doom playthrough the thing is it's third
party making those claims and that person and that person and that person does that to everyone who plays that level slash song there is no artist
rish and doom soundtrack so there are some things you guys need to understand
gaming companies a lot of the time a lot of the time outsource uh a distributor or they'll hire
a label artist or a composer so on and so forth to make the music for them and a lot of the times these gaming companies
these gaming companies will purchase you guys can't see my air quotes the you guys can't see my air quotes the license to use that music in their game
it doesn't mean that they own the music but they used they bought a license to but they used they bought a license to use it in the game itself a game like doom you are buying a license to play that
game in the license agreement of that game it's it's written out in a way where it's going to be just you enjoying it and they don't ever really
include in that agreement that you scrolled all of it of and you just checked that little box you agree just so you can play that game they never negotiate for that music to
be used on platforms like youtube twitch spotify so on and so forth okay so that being said
play on stream typically if you're streaming on twitch twitch's dmca system copyright system is pretty bad
they don't really are they aren't intense as youtube youtube will like watch your stream live and they'll dmca you live twitch on the other hand not so much
so now we know that most gaming outsource their music to a third party to make it [Music] that being said
what do we do well mr murdock just said turn off the and that is definitely one thing you should do turn off the music or or
even better see if the company see if the company that made the game to use the music on stream [Music]
and some companies do there are some companies that love it when you use their music on stream for example world of warcraft said that they would be more than happy for you to play their
while you're playing their game another one is final fantasy there are a lot of gaming companies that made this music in house they didn't
outsource it they made it in-house which now they have full control to allow you absolutely do that right so you guys brought up some good points like cyberpunk 2077 had a problem where
you were playing the music that was in game copyright strikes for it now they have to turn on something called streamer where that copyrighted music wouldn't be played the reason why
you guys got dmca or strike copyright strikes is because they didn't make the music in house they outsourced it okay [Music] so
do some investigating you got to figure it out sometimes you gotta search google you gotta search on youtube you gotta switch it on on youtube you gotta switch it on twitter and see if a game that you like
that you're streaming has a problem with copyright strikes has a problem with copyright strikes a lot of new games chances are if there are a hundred or a thousand people streaming that game for
the past six months nobody's talked about getting copyright strike he about getting copyright strike he probably will be okay how about nintendo or pokemon that one's a toss-up because nintendo
they sometimes go back on what they say do you need to ask for permission though before using them the game typically no there are some companies out there that don't like you
to stream their game most companies are a okay with it good rule of thumb is see if other people are streaming it on twitch and youtube if other people are streaming it on twitch on youtube
little while chances are it's okay chances not always 100 maybe you said something in the video they didn't like it
and that's the thing all these video game companies can change their minds tomorrow and copyright and dmca strike you if they want even if it's in their terms of services
if they decide to change their mind for whatever reason they have the right to do so and there's nothing you can do about it but should you really be worried no i wouldn't be
again you gotta do some research on the games you intend to play on stream and again go to twitch go to youtube is there a lot of people making videos on it do some research type into google
do some research type into google you know doom copyright strikes it would be a foolish way uh it would be foolish as it would get huge backlash they would get some huge backlash sure
but there are some companies out there that just don't care let's be honest there are companies out there that just do not care and a lot of that the problem with the internet is the internet is very
forgetful so after two weeks of right i hate this people forget and move on it's the sad truth but it's the truth okay
the person that posted that in the discord to make a third-party claim because
they aren't doomed they aren't id studios or whoever makes doom these days so it would be a third party company that does make the copyright claim not all companies
not all companies will copyright they might hire a third party to do a copyright strike they have that option right it's sometimes cheaper to
outsource it to another company to do it for you then hire an intern or hire a youtube database and do it underneath the company name so there are companies out there that do third party copyright claims
that is normal that does happen and happens it happens all the time so that's okay
seem to be worried about from my opinion more times than not is not really the companies going after you guys what i see a lot of you guys talking about in discord on youtube on twitter
so on and so forth is fake copyright claims to understand how hard is it
to file a copyright claim so so on a scale from one to ten super easy and ten being super hard
i want you guys to give me one number from one to ten how hard do you think it is again one being super easy and ten being type it down right now let me know i'm gonna drink some water
five five abusable so one we got a two we got a three we got a two we got a three zero
interesting big company like three individuals six okay three we got four we got a seven okay three we got four we got a seven okay okay okay so some of you guys think
it's fairly hard okay let's do a copyright claim shall we shall we walk through the process of other copyright claim right now
what do you guys think i think we should thing right now let's do a copyright claim claim so
you could go to google type in copyright claim takedown
takedown okay so all you literally need is my content type of work video original song software art live performance copyrighted logo or other
that's it so say if john rips off on my videos i just gotta get a copy of that link of my ripped off video and i paste it in my ripped off video and i paste it in there
not that i've been able to figure out at least my affected party myself or company and organization or client that i represent relationship to copyrighted content
your job title or role related to the content in question so either i am the ceo of said company or i'm a representative of said so on and so forth name of copyright owner
your channel name or or full legal name can also be an identifying professional name
we'll show the placement in the place of the remove video street address email so on and so forth state province so and so forth
right right seven day notice standard remove request removal now that's standard by
not a schedule not send a seven day notice prevent copies of this uh copies of this video appearing
have good faith information so on so forth you do your fake digital signature and you're good to go [Music] what's the problem that we see here
what's the problem that we see here on this copyright claim the video does anybody know what the problem is here
and it's actually very much a one on that scale robot girl got it thorntel got it
that you are the owner of the said content what's what's the other messed up heart chat
and can anybody get it i wonder if you guys can find figure it than the fact you don't know how to prove that you're you are the owner
no i'm just going to say it you don't even have to prove you are you whatever the hell i want it to be it'll be whatever i want i could use a
fake name there's no proof there's no driver's license upload there's nothing there's literally nothing that i have to put in to prove that i am
me not a thing don't have a shadow driver's license i don't have to show a passport don't have to show a passport i don't have to show anything
options one to schedule the other request removal now these removals can lead to a copyright strike youtube processes the video removal after validating the request mostly automated by the way
also gets used for hay takedowns like on tick tock exactly that's messed is it not
so when a copyright claim comes in well what happens is you have to reply to it
to you um but you generally generally you have do it okay okay if you reply to a copyright claim
if you reply to a copyright claim the person that claimed you has 30 days one month to reply to the said claim to reply to the said claim okay
that person does not reply within that 30 days or that one month because some months are 28 days are 28 days you automatically win
what do we do if they reply if they reply saying no my copyright my copyright was valid
this is what happens and this is this is the mess up part this is this is this is what's really messed up
they again have 30 days to reply if they don't you win you win if they do
copyright claims 95 of the time fake copyright claims won't get past this part this part it won't
because if it goes past this part and you refute this it goes to court
think it's 60 days i think youtube said in their creator camp then you win by default right
what's worse what's really worse is you the person replying to this copyright claim
have to give have to give and legal address
data they're hate rating you for any reason they now have your legal name and address what did i talk about last stream chat anybody remember
anybody remember there was a way so you don't have to give your legal name and address how do you do that two ways you can do this yes
yes you make an llc right you link that llc to a po box
so all they now have is your llc name and your po box address i don't know how it is in the states but i know in canada you don't have to have your real name on the llc information if you don't want it to be there that could
be kept secret you do have that option in the states i don't know if that's an option you guys will have to figure that out but but there's another way i didn't talk about
that i didn't talk about that you can do legally to fight this without giving your legal name and address
but if you are somebody that's making a decent income a decent revenue on anyways it's called a lawyer
uh name the name of the firm the name of the firm and address they are representing on behalf of you
as such you can use your lawyer's name and address and again if your youtube channel is making decent revenue you should have a lawyer anyway because your lawyer should be looking over every
single contract that you get whether it's sponsorship it's sponsorship deals so on and so forth yep but
it's an option but these are two ways you're gonna do it now you're typically gonna have an llc again if you are gonna like if your youtube channel is making decent revenue it should be an llc
there's no reason for it not to be really but like i said 95 percent in my personal opinion from what i saw on the internet most fake claims never go past that
[Music] they really don't so what should you do if you get if you feel like you got a fake copyright strike what do you guys think you should do
[Music] 100 of the time does anybody know what if you feel like you got a fee copyright strike
strike [Music] i know what i would do i would dispute it
i would dispute it [Music] dispute slash repeal even fight it
what do you have to lose 30 days right 30 days passes
and be like no this is copyrighted material decision from there now you can reach out to me you can be like hey senpai what should i do i'll give advice i'm not a lawyer
but i will give advice on what you should do that's pretty messed up
does your channel slash video have any negative effects during those 30 days i heard you don't get ad revenue for that time period or something yeah so what happens is can they reclaim it later yes they could
what happens is all ad rev and is held by youtube
until it is resolved resolved once it's resolved the ad rev will go to the proper person okay
all the ad rev will go to the proper person after the copyright stream uh claim has been disputed successfully so on and so forth on and so forth now if you get three strikes
just like john said which is pretty crappy it really is it's pretty crappy three strikes rules you're you're gone after one strike you can't even stream
and this is why chat this is why i always say this is why i always say whether you are a streamer on twitch whether you are a streamer on twitch or youtube
one revenue you should honestly have three or more right
yeah yeah copyright strikes not claims yeah copyright strikes you could have thousand claims yeah yeah yeah you have lots of claims
the only time it turns into a strike is once it's favored upon the other person sorry sorry for all videos or just the offending one just the offending video just that one
video all that revenue will be held just for all that revenue will be held just for the one video not your whole channel but this is why i always say have more than one
so if you are a youtuber or twitch streamer have a merch line have other platforms right i have a twitch channel if my youtube goes down tomorrow for whatever reason
at least i can go live on twitch i can let my youtube audience know on discord or on twitter that that's my new home and i'm good to go that's also why i have a facebook page
just in case those go i have a third backup these are other things you guys gotta think about
we're not done yet some of you guys mentioned earlier today and i've seen this a lot and it drives me nuts but a lot of people think actually think this
that they can use big names slash content in their videos
uh no infringements i smelt that wrong i don't care intended i see this one too many times use under fair use
chat that these are not protections if you upload
a one-to-one copy of uh let's like like hell's kitchen right you upload a one-to-one copy of hell's kitchen and it's just you with your v-tubing
avatar or your real-life person your real-life avatar the whole episode ruined ruined through and not adding anything to it
through and not adding anything to it it's not fair use the avengers
making marvel clips and you say no copyright infringement intended doesn't protect you because again you did nothing to transform that content
transform that content that is just a one-to-one rip and i'm sorry you're not doing anything fair use
music wise what should you guys do because a lot of you guys have this question through music okay
because as we see here on youtube which i just showed you guys anybody can fill out a dmca slash copyright form and not think anything about it [Music]
[Music] so yeah there's stream beats right there's a low fi girl [Music]
by lofi girl that you can use right youtube has its own database has its own database [Music]
of free music that you could use as well okay there's page services like epidemic happy damn
which is i think like ten dollars a month and they got crazy amount of music on there crazy amount of music which actually links your youtube channel so they make
sure you do not get a copyright strike or dmca or anything like that that lo-fi girl will issue this has happened to me a
will issue this has happened to me a copyright strike lo-fi girl issue
issue senpai a copyright strike even though lo-fi girl said it was okay to use their music
lo-fi girl if she said it was okay anybody know why senpai got copyright strikes from low-fi girl
let me tell you guys why somebody got copyright strikes from lo-fi girl
their music to lo-fi girl lo-fi girl vets the music against the youtube database which isn't always
perfect it sometimes takes a few months months for youtube to actually match up that song to other songs in the youtube database
with other songs on youtube and when that happens
crazy huh crazy huh publisher will send out the claimants rick yeah and this happened to harris heller this happened that very thing that john
oh sorry i wasn't strike sorry guys i gotta stop saying strike i apologize it it was a claim my apologies my apologies sorry i mean strike it was a claim sorry it was copyright claim
appeal and it goes through in favor of them it's favored by in their favor that's when you get the sorry um so
[Music] harris heller stream beats
planes sorry but it wasn't harris heller sending them out
harris heller used to call use a distributor called distro kit and disco kid by accident something happened in their database something happened in the back systems so on and so forth
so forth sent out the claims and as such thousands of people got claims
and days harris is like they've all been retracted everything's a-okay the distributor screwed up that does happen a distributor a publisher will screw up from time to
nothing is perfect it does happen with youtube 2 with their own music library has happened has happened it will happen
so i'm sorry to say chat there isn't 100 [Music] of getting around it
say it right close at the end of the video but there is always a way for you to get a copyright claim and again if that claim is in favor of the person doing the claim
three strikes you're out [Music] but you guys it's not a hundred percent the only thing you can do
is research as much as possible right
versus getting a strike so if you for example if you thorn were ripping off my stuff i would send thorn acclaim
i would send thorn acclaim right thorn is infringing on my content i want this crap down
this crap down thorns like i'm 100 in my rights and i'm like
yeah uh i'm in the right i responded and then we go legal
right and legal sides with me if legal sides with me then it's a strike
if legal sides with you then what technically happens is it's a mark
doesn't really do anything it's not really a big bad thing anything it's not really a big bad thing but it goes after i think 60 days again chat all this is in the youtube studio
they do have courses on this stuff made by youtube for you guys to go check made by youtube for you guys to go check out to to take to understand so on and so forth but yeah
pretty crazy isn't it pretty crazy hello eva how you doing it's nutty it's absolutely nutty
literally just do your due diligence look up the game you're trying to play see if other people are experiencing copyright strikes dmca strikes or um copyright claims right
important google it look it up on reddit look it up on youtube look it up on facebook so on and so forth see if other people are with music google it reddit
youtube it check it out everywhere see if other people are having this problem avoid it that's what i would do i would avoid it even if there's one okay
okay unless you do what girl dm does which is music in a different channel which doesn't get mixed the audio that's does that that's that's pretty cool
but chat that's what i would that's what i would do that's what i would do that's what i would do it's an option it's a it's a thinker but
yeah do you guys have questions