YouTube recently made a change to their Terms of Service, and it just shows why you should read the terms when you open a new account. In this change that came into effect November 18, 2020, YouTube inserted a section called ‘Right to Monetize’ that states that it has the right to place ads ‘on or within’ videos on YouTube, and will not share that revenue with the content creator.
Can YouTube do this? It might be a little unclear. Copyright law limits what YouTube can do without express written consent. Becoming a part of the partner program would provide that consent most likely, but just clicking ‘I agree’ might not.
To get payments from YouTube you need to join the YouTube Partner Program. To qualify your channel needs 1,000 subscribers and you have to have 4,000 hours of viewing over the course of a year.
As important as consent to monetize is, the ability to decline is just as important. Certain channels might have an incentive not to add advertisements to their videos, such as channels that churches upload services too. Political channels may wish to avoid political advertisements.
Other channels may decline monetization for personal reasons. Gotye declined to monetize the music video of his song “Somebody That I Used to Know”.
Even if people know that ads are not necessarily chosen by the channel, it would not necessarily keep them from subconsciously associating advertisers with content, especially advertisers who purchase mid-roll ads.
Advertisers have identified that this may happen as advertisers have boycotted YouTube in the past, which led to YouTube removing content that the advertisers objected to.
When you look at the copyright license you grant YouTube, it is rather limited. YouTube is only granted the right to use your content to promote itself. The most prominent example would be the “Year in Review” videos they had released in the past.
If YouTube is able to continue this, very little could be done. YouTube has monopoly power in this space, as there are very few alternatives to YouTube and their compensation system. It could be argued that this is an abuse of monopoly power.
Google, the parent company to YouTube, is facing accusations of doing the same thing.
For all of those who have declined to monetize, now might be the time. If you are planning on moving into the online video space, research your options. Although, YouTube may face some push back against this decision in the future.
Click here for sources
The Mill Review 