My channel was terminated; is there any hope?
Hopefully this is the right flair & subreddit.
I’ve had a YouTube account for over a decade. I use it constantly.
A couple of years ago, I started getting really into Old Hollywood movies. Disappointed by the lack of their presence on YouTube, I started uploading <5 minute clips from various films that I felt deserved a wider audience. Most of the films were from the 1930’s, and some of them were/are public domain. The ones that weren’t were labeled as “copyright claim” and said that the copyright owner allows the videos to be shared online. I always made sure to make it clear that I owned nothing I was posting & didn’t want or expect any kind of revenue.
I’m someone who watches everything with subtitles, and I realized how much better the auto-translate would be if the closed captions were accurate, so I started editing the autogenerated ones & updating them on my channel.
I haven’t posted anything on my channel for over 6 months.
Today, I was listening to a music playlist when I was abruptly signed out of my YouTube account & told that it has been terminated.
At that moment, I received an email from YouTube saying that I’d just received a bunch of copyright strikes on videos that I’d posted over a year ago. All of those videos had previously been allowed; if they hadn’t, I wouldn’t‘be been able to post them. I don’t remember if they’d even be copyright claimed, but they were definitely allowed to be made publicly available.
Apparently, the copyright holder changed their mind. Which is fine, if annoying. That’s their right. But I don’t understand why my entire channel was terminated because *they* changed their policy & didn’t even give me a warning. Furthermore, the email says that I’m not allowed to make another account; I’m just…not allowed to use YouTube anymore.
I’m fine with the videos that received strikes being blocked or removed. I have no intention of fighting that. I just want my channel back, with all my playlists, likes, and comments.