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How Faceless Channels Make Millions Avoiding Copyright AEFmtConversion1703586013009
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This YouTube channel makes money by creating faceless channels that feature content sourced from other creators. They use transformation to add value to the original content and avoid copyright strikes. Fair use is a legal doctrine that allows creators to use copyrighted content if it is transformative and adds value. The four pillars of fair use are the purpose and character of the copyrighted work, the source or nature of the copyrighted work, the amount used, and the impact on the market for the copyright holder. It is important to diversify sources and add variation to the content to lower the risk of copyright strikes. This faceless YouTube channel makes hundreds of thousands of dollars from tens of millions of views every single month. But none of the footage in these videos belongs to the creator. So how is it possible for this channel to not only exist, but to profit from other people's content? Why hasn't this channel got demonetized or been hit by copyright strikes? First, you need to understand this is not a unique example. There is a whole industry that surrounds all of this called YouTube Automation. The main idea is to create channels around popular niches and topics with high CPMs, therefore higher paying ad revenue. And these are faceless channels with no talent attached to them. And no new footage is created. It's all sourced from content that already exists. And then the key secret ingredient is added. Transformation. Often all of the work is outsourced from the scripting, to the narration, to the editing, to the thumbnail design. And it's a business model that's existed for over a decade now. And from this system, regular people, even teenagers, are making millions of dollars on YouTube. But it does rely on what you might call some dark arts. Challenging how copyright law works today and staying on the right side of YouTube's content ID system. So I wanted to know how all of this was possible. Now we have already made a video about how to start a faceless channel from scratch. It lays out the whole process for you, step by step, even if you don't want to pay out any money up front. And it's one of our best performing videos on the vidIQ channel of all time. And the reason for this is because it features Noah Morris. A 20 year old YouTube Automation entrepreneur who wasn't shy in revealing all of his secrets. Except one. The question of faceless channels and copyright. And you let us know in the comments. And so I reached out to Noah again and he told me exactly how he does it. Avoiding demonetization and copyright strikes on his faceless YouTube channels. So let's get started. So just before we get into fair use and YouTube copyright, I do want to say I'm not a legal expert. My experience comes from, you know, doing YouTube channels for eight years long, getting a lot of corporate claims and having to go through a lot of disputes as well as, you know, talking to a bunch of legal experts and a bunch of people with experience in this field. And so this is why you should pay attention to what Noah has to say. Because he's been through the copyright trenches. But we should also include ourselves in not being copyright experts here at vidIQ. So don't take any of this as professional or legal advice. Now, Noah, when it comes to copyright, a lot of creators try to rely on something called fair use. But what actually is it? So, yeah, fair use is a legal doctrine that allows you to use other people's copyrighted content within your own video. It is very important to say this can only happen if the content you are making from the original copyrighted work, it's fair use at slash transformative. What does transformative mean? You have to add value to the original copyrighted work. This means educational value. You have to give commentary, a different perspective, a parody perhaps. That is what transformative means. So when you put it like that, Noah, it sounds pretty simple. You get some content, you mix things up a little bit and boom, it's transformative, right? So the problem with fair use really is that it's a massive gray area, both on YouTube and in the US legal system. I've got copyright claims, copyright strikes and whatnot, and it costs you a bunch of ad revenue and a bunch of headache if you don't understand fair use properly. There's a lot of misconceptions surrounding fair use, especially on YouTube. It is often the case that YouTubers hear this magical term, fair use, and assume it's the ultimate defense to anything copyrighted. That, of course, is your first mistake. And here are some more. A very common misconception YouTubers have is that YouTube decides what is fair use or not. They actually don't. The US court system decides fair use. When we're talking about fair use, there are four pillars that are really important. So the first one would be character of use. The second one would be the nature of the copyrighted work or the source of the copyrighted work. The third one would be the amount used. And the fourth would be the impact on the market for the copyright holder. All right, Noah, now you're talking our language. We love plans. We love steps. In this case, pillars. Let's talk about that first one. Purpose and character of the copyrighted work. What's all that about? So when we're talking about the purpose of the copyrighted work on the fair use, we're really talking about how much value and transformation are you adding? So are you adding significant value in form of cool edits? Are you adding a bunch of commentary? Is the video revolving around you and not the copyrighted content? If the video is revolving around the copyrighted content, that is not fair use. So if you're straight up ripping a video from another channel and posting it on your channel with minimum editing and just a bit of commentary, that's not fair use because you're not adding significant value. You need to make sure that you're adding more value than the copyrighted clip is bringing. So this value can come from different sources. It can come from your opinion or your commentary, from informational context. So documentaries on YouTube would be a good example. Right, right. What would be an example of something that isn't considered transformative content? An example of something that wouldn't be fair use is just taking someone else's video, adding a little bit of commentary, like maybe 30% commentary to the video, and then just straight up posting it to your channel. No, that's not fair use because the copyrighted work is valued more than your commentary. You really have to make sure that your commentary or your educational insight or your perspective or your parody is way more valuable than that tiny piece of copyrighted work, and that's called transformative content. All right, let's move on to the second pillar now, the source or nature of the copyrighted work. So the source and nature of the copyrighted work really is one of the most important things you have to think about as a creator because it's really important that you make sure you don't take from companies or corporations that are very stringent on copyright because this will get you in trouble always. Why? Because these guys have the lawyers. They have a very solid content ID system, and you will get in trouble very, very quickly. It's almost as if Noah here is describing different levels of risk of being caught using copyrighted content. Who is extremely protective of their content and who is more lenient? Let's ask and find out. High risk would be something like a sports broadcast. So think of Formula One broadcast, official Formula One broadcast, official soccer broadcast, the NFL, the Super Bowl. Those are very copyrighted works. They have large legal structures behind that content, and you have to be very, very careful when you're utilizing that copyrighted work because the chance that you will get in trouble is very big, and they're not afraid to sue creators. Other sources you really have to be wary of is video licensing agencies like Viral Hook. They're also very stringent on copyrighted work. And lastly, I would say anything to do with creative works. Films, movies, ads, those things are also very protected when it comes to copyright law. So those three things, be very careful. Good sources or low-risk copyrighted sources would be things like body cam footage or public domain footage. So think about when a sheriff's office posts police body cam footage. That's low-risk copyrighted footage. Another one would be any factual or informational content, things like news clips, documentaries. If they're in an educational context, usually you won't get a copyright claim as fast because, again, it's in an educational context. And last up is all the user-generated content or all the individual fan clips. So let's say you want to use footage from the Formula One race, but you can't use official broadcast. Instead, what you do is you take clips from people that have filmed the Formula One race or Formula One moment on their phone. Because this usually doesn't get matched in the content ID system. Usually individuals won't be as likely to take you to a court or strike you on YouTube. So really, with these sources, you have to think of vlogs, anything posted to Twitter, Reddit, Instagram. Those are usually pretty safe to utilize in your own videos. Now, this does make me sit a little uncomfortably to think that individual creators are lower risk when it comes to copyrighted content. Because they don't have the power, time, influence or legal department to defend their content. I think this does best illustrate the imperfect YouTube copyright world. But it does make this conversation really fascinating because Noah is being so honest and transparent. And he's got more to tell us. So another big tip I would give creators would be really think about how much variation in sources do you have in your own video. So let's say you're only taking your copyrighted content from one source. Big chances are that you will get corporate claims or strikes. So try to really diversify into different sources. So, for example, you can take a little bit of the Formula One race from the public broadcast. Like a very small snippet. You can take some of the fan footages. You can take pictures. Try to really diversify who owns the copyrighted content. Because this will make sure you're less likely to get strikes. And it will also argue a stronger case for fair use. That was very comprehensive, Noah. Let's move on to our third pillar. The amount of content used. Amount used also has a ton of misconceptions. So it's not really... When we're talking about fair use on YouTube, people really say like, okay, you can only use an X amount of seconds, right, in your video. But it's not really about that. It's about the significance of that copyrighted clip. So let's say you're really taking the heart of the clip and putting it in your own video. The chance that you will get copyright claims or strikes is way higher than if you take unimportant parts from that copyrighted content. So in practice, what does that mean? Let's take an example from a movie, The Empire Strikes Back. It's a two and a half hour film. But you could just take three seconds from that film when Darth Vader says to Luke, And that is the heart of the entire thing ripped out of it. Don't lean on the misconception that clips under 10 seconds won't get you in trouble with copyright. Yes, it will make sure YouTube doesn't detect your copyrighted footage as quickly. But in court, it won't hold up if you're using the heart of the copyrighted clip. So what about that fourth pillar? Potential market impact. Yeah, so the last pillar does your content with the copyrighted footage replace the original copyrighted footage. So that's why compilations are so tricky. Because they usually replace the original copyright holder's content. Because viewers are more likely to go watch the compilation. They have watched the compilation, they have seen the footage, and they won't watch the original clip anymore. And that hurts the market for the copyright holder. And that infringes on their copyright. And that will get you in a lot of trouble. So make sure, again by diversifying, to not hurt the copyright holder's market. Because that's another big factor when it comes to fair use. Try to really limit the impact you have on the market the copyright holder is in. Now Noah, all that we've talked about so far is designed to help you stay out of big trouble. You know, copyright strikes. But what about those day-to-day copyright claims and content ID? How to avoid content ID on YouTube is another big question I often get asked. And it's really important to just combine the information I have given earlier. Which is make sure, firstly, you're using low-risk sources. Your content is very transformational. Try to use everything in an educational context or in a commentary context. Again, educational is most safe. Commentary is a bit of a gray area. Try to add a lot of your own value in terms of editing as well. So add more variation in the footage. Let's say you want to add stock footage, animations, podcast clips, news clips. The more different types of footages you're using in your YouTube video, the less likely it is for YouTube to detect that copyrighted footage. And obviously the shorter the clip, the less likely it is to get claimed as well. And another thing to avoid content ID on YouTube is to make sure to use an interval. So there has to be a break between the copyrighted content. So 10 seconds of copyrighted work, and then 10 seconds of voiceover. 10 seconds of copyrighted work, 10 seconds of voiceover. This way, YouTube's AI doesn't really detect the copyrighted work as fast. As I mentioned earlier, faceless channels occupy a somewhat murky region of the YouTube world. Copyright seems to be somewhat open to interpretation. And the rules are bent as far as they will go. I know that some of you creators watching this video will have the feeling that none of this should be allowed on YouTube. But it is. It has been for a long time, and it will be in the future. On the other hand, some of you will feel inspired and ready to embrace the idea of making a faceless channel. This is your step-by-step guide on how to do it from Noah himself.
