Roha Entertainment, run by Sharat Chandra and Shyam Reddy Maruthi in Telangana, India, sent multiple false copyright claims to YouTubers, including myself, Jim Browning, and Deeveeaar.
Roha Entertainment is a YouTube Certified Partner and therefore has access to YouTube’s Content ID system, allowing them to send copyright claims for the creators they represent.
In this post, I’ll show you how I complained about Roha Entertainment to YouTube for sending false claims and how I disputed and got the claims released.
Update: Don’t miss the many updates at the end of this post. We’re still being harassed by new false claims from Content ID partners!
Who would want to send me fraudulent YouTube copyright claims?
It’s straightforward, Jim Browning and I criticised and exposed a company in Gurugram, India, running a scam call centre, and now they’re trying to get those videos taken down.
The company owners were even arrested by the Haryana Police, a story you can read on the BBC!
The purpose of the false claims are to attack our YouTube channels and remove the information about their offending.
What do fake YouTube copyright claims look like?
A false YouTube copyright claim occurs when someone falsely claims to own the copyright to a video they do not actually own. This can lead to the video being taken down or monetisation being redirected to the false claimant.
I received two false claims, and Jim received eleven!
The following false claim is for a video where I vlog my visit to a Police Station in India after the arrest of the scam call centre owner.
Besides this being my original content with my face talking to the camera throughout the video! The most obvious sign that this is claim false is the “Copyright content” title, “News india Gov12.”
In the other false claim I received, the title was “News india Gov11.”
Jim Browning similarly got the same titles but with different numbers at the end.
How to deal with false copyright claims
Jim and I used the below methods to complain to YouTube about the abuse of their content ID system, dispute the claims, and raise awareness on social media.
Reporting the abuse to YouTube
Firstly, I sent an email outlining the abuse of the Content ID system by Roha Entertainment.
I requested an investigation be conducted into Roha Entertainment’s fraudulent use of content ID and asked for the false claims to be removed.
I sent the email to YouTube’s partner support, copyright department, and legal team.
You can do the same with the following email addresses. If you have a partner manager, copy them in too.
partner-support@youtube.com
copyright@youtube.com
legal@support.youtube.comSend the email from the account your YouTube channel is registered to, and include the following:
- Your name & channel URL
- The URLs of the claimed videos
- Attach PDFs of the false copyright claims
- Provide all the information as to why the claims are false
- Ask YouTube to take action against the partner for abusing the content ID system
Pro-tip: I had quick success with copying into the email the copyright claimant, like in update 3. Although it really takes some digging to find their contact details!
Before moving onto the next step, wait a day or two to see if the false claim gets released.
Disputing the copyright claim
Next, I followed YouTube’s help guide on how to dispute a copyright claim.
After disputing the claims, Roha Entertainment released both claims.
In the reason section of the dispute, I wrote, “This is a deliberate attempt to abuse the content ID system. The content is 100% original.”
Ideally, you’ll need to provide a lot more information than this. The same information you provided as evidence in your complaint to YouTube. I only put that short reason because that worked for Jim to get his claims released (as you’ll see later in the post).
In Jim’s case, as you can see in his tweet, initially, “Roha Entertainment decided that their copyright claim is still valid.” How do they get to decide that on their very own?
YouTube’s copyright system is highly staked in favour of the claimant and easy to abuse.
Just see YouTube’s content ID dispute and appeal process diagram; the claimant has the power the entire way through.
Use social media to raise awareness
After Jim’s tweet, Roha Entertainment did a u-turn and released the claim.
So make sure you also use Twitter to show the false claim and tag the following accounts and the claimant (if possible).
@TeamYouTube
@YouTubeCreators
@YouTubePosting these false claims out in public will help future victims search for information about companies like Roha Entertainment. They’ll be able to quote these tweets and blog posts and use them as evidence when complaining to YouTube.
So, use your social media to raise awareness about the abuse of YouTube’s copyright system.
The false claims were released
After all of that, our claims were released by Roha Entertainment!
If all that doesn’t work…
If all that didn’t work, my next steps would be to contact the claimant directly, and finally take action in court.
Call the claimant directly
If you decide to contact the claimant, politely tell them that a mistake must have happened on their end and that they should look into it and report back to you.
Record your conversations with them because you might need them in the next step.
File a case in court
If that doesn’t work, you have to take the legal route. Look up their company information in the company register and hire a lawyer nearest to them to file a case against them.
You can hire lawyers in foreign countries and register cases in court.
Because it’s a false claim, you’re more than likely to win in court, so the claimant, at this point, will probably put your case in the too-hard-basket and remove their false claims.
What was Roha Entertainment doing by sending false claims?
Were they just trying to scare and bully us for the scammers they’re representing?
Or did the scammers somehow get access to their tools to send false claims?
We don’t know. But this should not be happening, and YouTube should take strict action against Certified Partners who abuse the content ID system like this.
Does YouTube punish Content ID abusers?
Yes, YouTube does punish certified partners who abuse Content ID.
I found out that Roha Entertainment was punished by losing access to Content ID for a certain amount of time. They have since regained access.
So reporting to YouTube does work.
Update 1: Roha Entertainment’s reply
Jim got in touch with Sharat Chandra from Roha Entertainment and they say that one of their creators issued the false claims and that they’ve ended their relationship with them.
In the end, it seems like a genuine error (not anymore, see update 2!)
Roha Entertainment should not be so quick to take money from scammers who just want to abuse their system.
They should verify the creator is a real creator, verify they’re actually the owner of the content they register, and check all copyright claims their creators send out before allowing them to use their system.
“Take money, ask questions later” is not a good enough business practice for a YouTube Certified Partner.
Update 2: More false takedowns!
Deeveeaar, another YouTuber in the scambaiting scene, has also alleged a false claim was sent to him by Roha Entertainment!
So did Roha Entertainment really take any action? Nope, they’re still sending false claims to try to silence YouTubers making videos about scam call centres.
Update 3: New false claims from SSDN Networking PVT LTD (via Lavina Music)
Fast forward to August, Jim Browning and I have received new copyright claims for the exact same videos.
This time the claimant is Lavina Digital, also known as Lavina Music, a music distributor from Ukraine.
Music companies often have a different name for their digital distribution arms.
I was able to link Lavina Digital to Lavina Music by searching for one of Lavina Music’s artists on iTunes.
So I emailed YouTube partner support with all the information and evidence, and I copied in Ivan and Polina from Lavina Music.
That was enough to get the false claims released and the following response.
Dear partners!! My name is Polina Klim. I’m the CEO of Lavina Music Holding.
We have agreement with Indian company SSDN Networking PVT. LTD and by this agreement we have all copyright guarantees from them.
Indian videos downloaded content manager from this company. Thank you for informing us about this situation.
We will check out all details and we ask you be in touch with us to solve this problem.
Contact please with Kuldeep Khatri director and manager of this company.
When you will have results, please, inform us and we will find out the way how to manage this situation.
Reply from Polina Klim about false copyright claims sent by Lavina Music
SSDN Networking Pvt Ltd is run by Kuldeep Khatri and Arjun Das in Jodhpur, India.
I called Kuldeep, and he turned out to be a subscriber of mine and a genuine person.
Someone called Akash Yadav from Delhi had signed up their YouTube channels to Kuldeep’s content management service and uploaded Jim and my videos, then claimed our original videos (and over 200 more!). The person is obviously trying to erase information about themselves.
If this post helped you, please leave a comment.
