Someone reuploaded my video — what can I do?

Reuploads are the most common problem creators bring to us, and the one where the first hour matters most. What you do before filing anything largely determines whether the removal sticks.

Do this first, before anything else

Reuploads get deleted the moment the uploader realises they have been spotted, which is a problem if you have not recorded anything.

1. Screenshot the whole page — video, title, uploader name, view count, upload date, and the URL visible in the address bar.
2. Save the URL in plain text somewhere you will still have it in a month.
3. Note your original upload date. Being demonstrably first is the single most useful fact in the whole case.
4. Check for more. Search a distinctive phrase from your video, or a few words of your title. Reuploaders rarely stop at one.

How removal actually works

A takedown notice tells the platform that specific content infringes rights you hold. Filed correctly, with proof of ownership and the original upload predating the copy, the platform removes it and the uploader receives a strike or equivalent penalty.

Two things decide whether a notice succeeds, and both are where self-filed notices usually come apart:

• Precision. Notices have to be exact, per URL, and filed through the correct channel for that platform. Vague ones covering "this channel", or notices sent to a general support address, are rejected — and a rejected attempt makes the next one harder.
• Evidence, in the form the platform expects. Owning the work is not the same as being able to prove it in the way a reviewer can process in thirty seconds.

Stopping it coming back

Removing one video solves one video. Serial reuploaders simply post again, often the same day, so the real fix is making the account unviable rather than the upload.

• Everything has to land at once. Several removals arriving together carry far more weight with a platform than one a week, which reads as an ongoing disagreement rather than a pattern of infringement.
• The account matters more than the upload. Repeat infringer policies are what get a network of reposting accounts terminated rather than trimmed — but they only trigger when the filings are structured to trigger them.
• Somebody has to keep watching. Reuploads reappear weeks later, once attention drops.

We handled a case where a client's content was being reposted across a network of accounts: 137 videos removed and 18 accounts terminated inside 24 hours. The terminations mattered more than the removals, because they stopped the next 137.

When it is not worth chasing

A reupload with 40 views on a dead account may not be worth anyone's time or money. If it is not costing you revenue, reach or reputation, it is reasonable to leave it. What is worth acting on: monetised copies, anything ranking above your original in search, and anything being passed off as the uploader's own work.