Do you own ALL the necessary rights to your video (this includes, but is not limited to, audio, video, images, and text)?

If not, filing a counter-notification may not be appropriate for you. However, you may contact the content owner directly in search of a retraction of their claim. For instructions on how to request a retraction please go to the Retractions page.

DMCA Counter-Notification

To file a counter-notification with us, you must provide a written communication that sets forth the items specified below.

Please understand that filing a counter-notification may lead to legal proceedings between you and the complaining party to determine ownership. Be aware that there may be adverse legal consequences in your country if you make a false or bad faith allegation by using this process.

Please also be advised that we enforce a policy that provides for the termination in appropriate circumstances of subscribers who are repeat infringers. So, if you are not sure whether certain material infringes the copyrights of others, we suggest that you first contact a lawyer.

A counter-notification must include the following specific elements:

1. Identification of the specific URLs of material that YouTube has removed or to which YouTube has disabled access.
2. Your full name, address, telephone number, and email address, and the username of your YouTube account.
3. The statement: "I consent to the jurisdiction of the Federal District Court for the district in which my address is located, or if my address is outside of the United States, the judicial district in which YouTube is located, and will accept service of process from the claimant."
4. The statement: "I swear, under penalty of perjury, that I have a good faith belief that the material was removed or disabled as a result of a mistake or misidentification of the material to be removed or disabled."
5. Signature. A scanned physical signature or a valid electronic signature will be accepted.

We can only accept a counter-notification directly from the user from whose account a video has been disabled. For verification, we require that counter-notifications be submitted from the email address associated with the account.

Our preferred method of counter-notification submission is via our online form.

If you have difficulty with the form, please read the alternative instructions.

If you would like to file an international counter-notification, please choose your country at the bottom of this page and wait for the page to reload.

After we receive your counter-notification, we will forward it to the party who submitted the original claim of copyright infringement. Please note that when we forward the counter-notification, it includes your personal information. By submitting a counter-notification, you consent to having your information revealed in this way. We will not forward the counter-notification to any party other than the original claimant.

After we send out the counter-notification, the claimant must then notify us within 10 business days that he or she has filed an action seeking a court order to restrain you from engaging in infringing activity relating to the material on YouTube. If we receive such notification we will be unable to restore the material. If we do not receive such notification, we may reinstate the material.