Several big names on YouTube were barraged with copyright violation notices this week that could potentially be erroneous. In the past, ContentID, YouTube's automated copyright violation checker, has overreached in flagging game-related content (in May, for example, when “Let's Play” videos were cited for including some of Nintendo's content). But this time, the flagging seems to be related to new rules from YouTube about how video makers who are part of Multi-Channel Networks (MCNs) upload their videos.

According to TubeFilter, YouTube told these MCNs last week that it would begin pre-screening a sample of their affiliates' videos for copyright violation before the video posts to YouTube in a process that could take as little as a few hours or up to a few days. The pre-screening system is also based on good behavior, so to speak, and affiliates who are never caught uploading copyrighted material will be checked less frequently.

That system seems to be causing some problems now, as popular YouTube channels are seeing a spike in copyright violation notices, which caused YouTube to remove ads from the video but not to necessarily take it down. For many very popular channels, this means a significant loss of revenue.

What's more, the copyright violation flags seem to come from third parties that don't own the rights to the game in question. As VentureBeat reports, a lot of the videos flagged have been pre-approved by game publishers for monetization on YouTube and Twitch. But in one example, a YouTuber received a copyright violation notice for including video of Metro: Last Light from a company called 4GamerMovie. Deep Silver, the company that actually owns Metro: Last Light told VentureBeat that “it fully permits YouTube creators to monetize videos featuring their games.”

VentureBeat contacted YouTube today, which issued a statement saying:

We recently enabled Content ID scanning on channels identified as affiliates of [multichannel networks]. This has resulted in new copyright claims for some users, based on policies set by the relevant content owners. As ever, channel owners can easily dispute Content ID claims if they believe those claims are invalid.

If YouTube users try to contest the copyright violation notice and lose, they will incur a strike against their account. Enough strikes, and YouTube could shut the entire channel down, so unfortunately, some users could have an incentive not to contest the violation.

It is unclear why video game content in particular seems to be in the cross-hairs of flagged video.