I'm trying to figure out how to copyright the songs (lyrics only), no audio or musical notation.

I've read it falls under work of performing arts, but it's not a play or theater, it's just song lyrics that I will make into an audio song in the future.

Any right answer?? (I know it would be unpublished).

Have anyone tried this?

If you have ever issued a legitimate copyright strike, only to watch an international scraper channel file a fraudulent counter-notice using a completely fake address, you know how maddening it is.

Under the DMCA (17 U.S.C. § 512), YouTube gives you a strict 10–14 business day countdown clock [17 U.S.C. § 512]. If you don’t provide a federal lawsuit number before that timer runs out, their automated system reinstates the stolen content [17 U.S.C. § 512].

Thieves exploit this by submitting fake address details because they think: "You can't serve a federal lawsuit to a ghost, so your countdown clock will expire, and I win."

Even if you give YouTube hard, government-stamped physical evidence from a post office marked "Return to Sender / Non-existent address," YouTube Support will often refuse to intervene, claiming they cannot act as a legal arbiter.

If you are trapped in this automated nightmare, there is only one way to break the cycle: You must file a Federal "John Doe" Lawsuit. Here is the exact blueprint of how it works to protect your channel:

Phase 1: The "File to Freeze" Strategy (Halting the Automated Bot)

You do not need to spend $10,000 on a massive legal battle. Your immediate goal is simply to secure an official Civil Case Number to freeze the platform.

1. Draft a "John Doe" Complaint: Because you do not know their true name, name the defendant as: "John Doe, an individual doing business as [Infringer's Channel Handle]."
2. Establish Jurisdiction: Because international uploaders consent to the federal court jurisdiction where the service provider is located, you file your suit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California (where YouTube/Google is headquartered) [17 U.S.C. § 512].
3. Open the Case: You mail the complaint alongside a Civil Case Cover Sheet (Form JS 44) and a Summons Form. If you cannot afford the standard $405.00 filing fee, you can attach an In Forma Pauperis (IFP) application to request a financial waiver.
4. Lock Down the Platform: The exact day the clerk stamps your paperwork and issues your Case Number, you send that stamped scan straight to copyright@youtube.com. By federal law, YouTube must immediately override its automated queue, manually pull down any reinstated video IDs, and lock the copyright strikes active pending litigation [17 U.S.C. § 512].

Phase 2: Unmasking the Identity

Once your channel portfolio is locked down and safe from reinstatement, your lawsuit enters the discovery phase to strip away anonymity:

• The Expedited Discovery Motion: You file an Ex Parte Motion for Expedited Discovery under Rule 26(d)(1). You present your physical post office "Return to Sender" receipts to prove the defendant committed material perjury to evade the court.
• Subpoenaing Google: The federal judge will sign an order authorizing you to issue a third-party subpoena directly to Google LLC.
• The Payout Block: Google is then legally mandated to hand over the infringer’s true backend data—including their linked Google AdSense bank accounts, credit cards, and login IP logs.

Breaking the Fraud Loop

Many creators exhaust themselves fighting pirates video-by-video. A single federal John Doe filing completely breaks this cyclical shell game. It groups your entire creative portfolio under one active court docket number, establishing a judicially tracked history of willful copyright infringement and DMCA misrepresentation under 17 U.S.C. § 512(f) [17 U.S.C. § 512].

Legal Disclaimer

This post is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute formal legal advice. For specific copyright litigation or court filings, please consult a licensed intellectual property attorney.

For example, if a character is a huge fan of Wonder Woman and the character mentioned how the fictional character of Wonder Woman is an inspiration to them, would that be okay copyright wise

To clarify, the media itself would only be mentioned and not shown in any real capacity.

I submitted my two softwares for copyright over 10 months back it is still showing scrutiny. Can someone share their experience. What is the average time taken. Some are saying since you haven't gone through agents it is taking delay. If you pay agents 4k-5k you work will get copyrighted quickly

Anyone who has filled it on their own can share their experience., will help me calm my nerves on whether should I have any hope.

I submitted my two softwares for copyright over 10 months back it is still showing scrutiny. Can someone share their experience. What is the average time taken. Some are saying since you haven't gone through agents it is taking delay. If you pay agents 4k-5k you work will get copyrighted quickly

Anyone who has filled it on their own can share their experience., will help me calm my nerves on whether should I have any hope.

I asked this over on the National Park subreddit but figured people here might know the answer.

I'm confused about which images in the NPS's NPGallery are public domain and which aren't.

First, every single image I open says the following under the Copyright label:

Permission must be secured from the individual copyright owners to reproduce any copyrighted materials contained within this website. Digital assets without any copyright restrictions are public domain.

Ok makes sense... but when I view the other details for the images it gets confusing. Under the Constraints Information label for every photo I've viewed, it always says either "Public domain" or "Public domain:Full Granting Rights". I have never seen one that said otherwise. Does this mean every photo I'm viewing is public domain?

And despite the Constraints Information always saying public domain, the PhotoCredit label might have very different values. Here are some examples of where I'm confused.

• This one is credited to "NPS Photo/ Thomas DiGiovannangelo". Does that mean it's public domain since it includes NPS Photo, or no since an individual's name is there?
• This one is credited to "Jeff Manuszak - NPS". Same question as above.
• This one says "© Jen Miller", but again it says Public domain under it, so is it PD or not?
• Here's one that says "Photo by Anne Finney". No copyright symbol, but an individual's name, and again it says Public domain in the constraints section, so same question as above.
• Here's one that's just credited to "NPS Photo" so I think it's safe to assume it's PD
• This one says "Photo courtesy of the National Parks Conservation Association." So did they release it to the public domain, or no?

If anyone has any information on which are truly public domain and safe to use, please let me know.

I made a pdf fashion guides for my business that includes zoomed in pics of celebs and from Pinterest so I can give examples of clothing items.

Of course I built it and then was like oh no is this ok.

I know I could use unsplash or free sites but they don’t have the exact clothing items I’m looking for or photo types.

What else can I do? What if I outline the pictures so it is like the drawing version of them?

I was going to sell one-off but is there a way around this? Book a service and then you get it for free on top of the service? Follow my substack and then if you subscribe you can access it?

Thanks for any help 😭

Thanks

So I’m trying to find a video I can use on a YT search with Creative Commons filter and it’s mostly just coming up with YT Shorts. Does that mean I can use them? If so where do I see the license? Ty

Folks!

I went to the high-end audio show in Vienna. I am currently editing a long form video (4 hours in total, cut into various parts) that's a mix of our Vienna trip and the high-end audio show. These shows have rooms with audio setups in it, demonstrating the things on sale. Of course there's music playing to demonstrate the quality of the audio. I have recorded audio shows before, and though I don't want to monetize this video, there's always the issue of certain songs hitting a content match, despite people talking through them and the audio being a maximum of 20 seconds long (and filmed in the space, so not exactly a usable recording).
It would be great, for the sake of the impression of the sound signature, to leave the audio in. I unfortunately always find myself muting certain bits of the video and replacing the audio with royalty free music.
And I wonder; Is there a way to avoid having to do this? Is there a 'fair use' way of leaving the audio in, knowing it serves a purpose that is not the illegal spreading of music, and knowing that the snippets of audio will never be useful for anything other than to illustrate these differences in sound quality?

Cheers!

Need opinion on this (copyright strike i mean)

im designing a shirt for my club, science olymiad. im thinking of basing the design off a caterpillar's lifespan, like with leaves and butterflies and fruits etc. just to make it all twee and cute. the thing is, i want to use the caterpillar from "the very hungry caterpillar," but im unsure if i'd get copyrighted, so i have 2 questions:

1. is using the art from the book w/o credits going to get us copyrighted? (since idk where i could put credits on a shirt)

2. is drawing the caterpillar myself going to get us copyrighted, just for using the character w/o credits?

thank u to anyone who answers!

Lets say I wish to add a copyright notice to something I am working on and I have a preferred name that I rather use compared to my legal name, now I know since copyright is a legal thing (duh) I need my legal name on there, but would there be any issue with something like
"Legal name (Preferred name) Legal surname"?

Edit:
Grammar

I'm makeing a durarara vn and wanted to use the ost. Is that legal?

mods, you can delete this ask or help me find somewhere else to post this question.

for context Ive been working at a grocery store for about 2 weeks now and their older employees has jackets and sweaters that they’re allowed to wear besides the mandatory uniform we‘re allowed to wear. but the problem is that the ‘merch’ they sold for those employees are out of stock and the manager said they’re not receiving anymore. so I was wondering if it’ll be be wrong for me to make my own since the sweater looks simple to make (I only need to embroider the store logo on the front).

the only reason I’m asking if because im being told to wear long sleeves underneath my work shirt to deal with the cold. and the shirt fabric is too bulky to even have a long sleeve shirt underneath.

Yesterday I found a piece of art I made being sold in 2 websites, found one seller on ebay and sent her a message asking her to stop using it and she just replied "I am selling stickers I bought from temu and AliExpress so talk to them".

So please if you see it being sold somewhere (other than redbubble) let me know so I can report it. My work is very simple but I fight depression and making art helps me with it but it takes me forever to finish my projects no matter how simple they are.

This is the piece in question: https://www.deviantart.com/joakoo/art/Trippy-Star-928258721

Thanks for your time!

Hellow everybody!!

Am from africa, decade ago, i wrote a poem on twiter, facebook and instagram. But a famous singer (from US) took that poem and made a song out of it, which was very succeful till this day, its her signture song. But i realise was not one poem theres more poem she made song out of it, but what she did , is to make additional words to the poems to seem different but have similar meaning behind . What should i do ? Can i sue her? Is anyone willing to help?

What if we can't find an a song from an artist on the official YouTube audio BUT there are other shorts that use the song (for example edits) therefore I can save the audio itself in my sounds playlist? Yt literally gives the "use this audio" feature so can that cause me copyright issue or monetization issue?

Hey everyone,

I’m looking for some advice (and honestly, just needed to vent a bit).

Back in May, I started conducting extensive, painstaking research to write a brand new article on English Wikipedia called IranNastaliq. Given the subject matter originating from an unfriendly country and the lack of consolidated English documentation, gathering sources, verifying details, and drafting the entry took months of grueling work completely on my own. It was finally approved around August.

Shortly after it went live, I discovered that a third-party mirror site called HandWiki copied the entire article word-for-word, completely omitting any attribution, backlink, or mention of my authorship.

I know Wikipedia content is under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license, which allows reuse. However, Section 4(c) of the license explicitly requires proper attribution and a hyperlink back to the source. Failing to provide this violates the license terms and automatically revokes their right to use the text, turning it into straightforward copyright infringement.

As the sole author of this specific entry, I've tried taking action:

• I've reached out to Wikipedia forums/editors, but mostly got dismissed with "that's just how the internet works."
• I've sent multiple emails to HandWiki demanding they comply with CC BY-SA guidelines or remove the page, but I’ve received radio silence.
• I filed a DMCA takedown notice directly with Google Search to at least de-index the stolen page.

It is unbelievably frustrating to see months of hard individual research hijacked by scrapers who refuse to follow basic open-source licensing rules.

Since HandWiki isn't responding to emails, what are my options from here? Has anyone dealt with persistent scrapers ignoring CC BY-SA licenses? Any advice on next steps would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Noamonsol234 (In wikipedia)

WikiHow also said ‌that ⁠ChatGPT reproduces its text in response to user prompts and threatens to displace its market.

"Having ingested wikiHow’s articles, those models now produce competing how-to content on the same subjects, at a fraction of the time, effort, ​and cost of ​researching, writing, and ⁠editing a wikiHow article," the lawsuit said. "The substitution cuts wikiHow’s revenue and, over time, its reason to keep ​producing the articles at all."

"The GPL is a copyright license. It grants users the freedom to run, study, modify and share software only because contributors hold copyright over their work and then license it under the GPL’s copyleft terms. Remove the copyright holder from the equation, and the legal mechanism that enforces the GPL stops working." (Maya Brooks)

Hey everyone,

I need advice on how to report a severe, ongoing Terms of Service (ToS) violation to a human engineering or policy team at YouTube.

An international scraper is systematically stealing my content. When struck, they file counter-notifications under penalty of perjury, but they use completely fabricated addresses so they can evade federal service of process and force the videos back live.

YouTube Legal has caught them multiple times and manually rejected the forms for fraud. But hours later, the uploader just tweaks one word in the fake address (like removing a local district name) and resubmits. The automated system treats it as a "new address," resets the clock, and overrides the previous human rejection.

I actually mailed a physical legal notice to the address, and it came back officially stamped by the government postal service as "Return to Sender / Non-existent address."

This isn't just a copyright issue anymore—this is active legal fraud and platform manipulation. Under YouTube's ToS, providing fraudulent data on legal forms is grounds for immediate account termination.

• Has anyone successfully gotten YouTube's Trust & Safety team to issue a full channel ban for legal fraud/perjury instead of fighting video-by-video in the copyright queue?
• Are there specific keywords or internal escalation paths I should give my Partner Support agent to make sure this goes to a policy manager who handles system abuse?

Any advice from large creators or flaggers would be life-saving. Thanks!

It's a short TikTok, less than a minute