Last weekend, YouTube made certain changes to the automatic content detection and management software that scans uploaded video for copyrighted material. As a result, a huge number of videos posted by gamers belonging to Multi-Channel Networks (MCN) are now being yanked offline thanks to bogus copyright claims and poor auto-detection. The email that initially went out included the following:

“Beginning in early January, newly-uploaded videos will occasionally go through a process called monetization review. This review is performed by YouTube, and will determine if your content is in compliance with YouTube’s current terms of use and copyright standards.”

The problem with YouTube’s new system is that it’s apparently flagging huge amounts of previously approved content and imposing no penalties on claimants who are filing bad faith disputes on content they don’t own. YouTube’s monetization system allows a user to choose to run ads in front of their content and earn money from the views. If, however, a rightsholder files a claim against the video, YouTube will automatically disable ad revenue on a video. Even if you dispute it, the claimant gets a month to respond. During that month, you make no money.

Dispute too often, or lose disputes, and your account gets deleted. It’s a ridiculous policy, clearly user-unfriendly, and this latest set of claims has only further demonstrated how YouTube — a company literally built on sharing video — has become deeply hostile to its own constituency. The situation is bad enough that Blizzard and Deep Silver (makes of Metro 2033 and Metro Last Light) are issuing statements that explicitly grant players the right to stream their products after other companies are making false claims against user uploaded content.

Part of the problem is the byzantine nature of the copyright system itself. BioShock Infinite, for example, contains a sequence from Mozart’s Requiem — Lacrimosa. Presumably, Irrational Games paid for the copyright on whatever performance of the piece is used in the game. But if a different choir claims copyright of the song on YouTube, they can shut down the video stream, even if the version of the song used in-game isn’t performed by the claimant taking advantage of the ContentID system.

So badly out of step, it hurts

All of this is happening even as Sony and Microsoft double down on video sharing as a major feature of their next-generation consoles. This is only going to drive a substantial segment of the population away. To date, the advantage of being able to possibly monetize content on Youtube — and its enormous reach in comparison to other services — has made users more willing to suffer through the problems. With the Xbox One and PS4 driving streaming to services like Twitch.tv, that’s going to be less an issue in the future.

But reading comments on websites, I’m struck by the number of people who acknowledge ContentID abuses and have turned them off on YouTube altogether. Why upload videos when someone else from an unrelated company can file a claim and wreck your business? Why bother attempting to create something when disputing the claims can lead to your entire channel being deleted? YouTube’s system is deeply hostile to the end user — even NASA has had its video streams blocked by people with the arrogance to claim copyright over footage of Curiosity deploying on Mars.

Instead of solving the problems, YouTube’s solution is to up the ante, driving users farther away.

Now read: Out of control copyright bots are making a mockery of the DMCA