False copyright claim on YouTube

A false copyright claim on YouTube, for this catalog, means a claim on a video that followed the license. Arctaholic’s rule is that it will not claim that use. A claim can still appear from a third party who copied the audio, or from a mismatch.

Do this, in order

1. Open the claim and read the claimant’s name. Screenshot it.
2. Confirm the video uses an Arctaholic track from the songs page, inside your own footage, and not as a music-only upload.
3. Email arctaholic@gmail.com with the video URL, the track name, and the claimant name.
4. Leave the video up while it is only a claim. A claim is not a strike. See claim vs strike.

Do not dispute first and explain later. YouTube says a dispute without a valid reason can become a removal request, and a valid removal becomes a strike: dispute help. The license URL is the right you have. Use it when you do dispute, after you know who claimed.

When it is not false

A claim on a re-upload of the song alone, a remix, or a video that also uses someone else’s song is not a false claim against this license. Fix the upload.

A false copyright claim on YouTube, with the message already written

A false copyright claim on YouTube gets cleared faster when the first email is complete. Use this shape:

Video: [URL]
Track: [song title]
Claimant name: [paste it from Studio]
The video is my footage with this track under the license.

Send it once to arctaholic@gmail.com. A string of follow-ups with no new fact does not move it. Screenshot the claimant line so you are not paraphrasing it from memory the next day.

While you wait, leave the video public if it is only a claim. Change the title or the thumbnail if you want, but do not swap in a different song and leave the claim sitting on the old audio. The claim is about the audio that was uploaded. Replacing the audio can be a separate edit, and the original claim may remain until it is released.

Do not pay a stranger who messages you offering to “remove the claim” for a fee. The catalog’s address is the one on this site. YouTube’s page on disputes says the claimant reviews a dispute, and a weak dispute can turn into a removal request. That is the risk of skipping the email.

If the video was a re-upload of the song alone, the claim is not false. Take the video down. The license never covered it.

Give the email one day of quiet before you add anything. If you remember a fact you left out, reply on the same thread with that fact only: a second track name, or that the video is a Short. Do not restate the whole story. Do not post the license URL in a dozen comments under the video and call that notice. Comments are not the claim screen. The claim screen is Studio, and the address that can act on an Arctaholic track is arctaholic@gmail.com. If the claimant releases the claim, check the revenue view the next day so you know the policy actually cleared.

Questions

How fast is a claim cleared?

There is no public clock. The email is the path. Send one message with the URL, not a string of duplicates.

What if the claimant is a company I do not know?

Still send the email. Name them in the message. Do not pay a random claimant for an Arctaholic track.