YouTube Help A company has been using my video to sell a product on their site

[Oliver & Liz]

Mods: I'm not sure the best place to post this. Please move if you feel it should be elsewhere.

I live in the US and today I discovered a UK based company has been using one of my videos to sell their product since October 2022. I have never heard of this company nor have I given them permission to use my video. I'm not sure how they were able to use my video since I just turned on "allow embedding" less than 24 hours ago. The site is a kid-friendly sensory education site.

My questions:
1. Since they are using my video and have been for a while without my consent to sell a product, can I ask for revenue share or back pay for a certain percentage of sells they had?
2. Is there any real course of action I can/should take here?

I've never had this happen before and would appreciate some insight from anyone that has been in a similar situation before.

 

[Oliver & Liz]

They also have this on their site. If I understand it correctly(I probably don't) it means that anything they post on their site is theirs and no one may use it. But if they took my video, which was public, and put it on their site are they trying to say it is now theirs? Halp, I'm so confused *chuckle*.

 

[MattCommand1]

Mods: I'm not sure the best place to post this. Please move if you feel it should be elsewhere.

I live in the US and today I discovered a UK based company has been using one of my videos to sell their product since October 2022. I have never heard of this company nor have I given them permission to use my video. I'm not sure how they were able to use my video since I just turned on "allow embedding" less than 24 hours ago. The site is a kid-friendly sensory education site.

My questions:
1. Since they are using my video and have been for a while without my consent to sell a product, can I ask for revenue share or back pay for a certain percentage of sells they had?
2. Is there any real course of action I can/should take here?

I've never had this happen before and would appreciate some insight from anyone that has been in a similar situation before.

It looks like they embedded your video. I would go into your YT channel and remove embedding. Depending on the number of views and performance of your video, you can simply Private the video. However, you will lose the watch hours and the ability to monetize it.

They are essentially giving you free views is one way to look view the situation. You have to decide what is more important to you.

I no longer allow my videos to be embedded. I want people to come into my channel to capture the viewership.

 

[Oliver & Liz]

It looks like they embedded your video. I would go into your YT channel and remove embedding. Depending on the number of views and performance of your video, you can simply Private the video. However, you will lose the watch hours and the ability to monetize it.

They are essentially giving you free views is one way to look view the situation. You have to decide what is more important to you.

I no longer allow my videos to be embedded. I want people to come into my channel to capture the viewership.

Ok. Thank you so much. I do like the free views haha. Out of curiosity, I just turned on embedding for all my videos yesterday, so how is it that they were able to embed it sometime last year?

 

[MattCommand1]

Ok. Thank you so much. I do like the free views haha. Out of curiosity, I just turned on embedding for all my videos yesterday, so how is it that they were able to embed it sometime last year?

Don't hold me to this but this has been my observation.

When you deactivate embedding, viewers are forced to click the thumbnail to come over to the channel to view it. Allowing embedding allows viewers to view videos on the page they are on.

 

[MediaMan]

Is there any real course of action I can/should take here?

Nope. People use YouTube videos to sell their own or affiliated products all the time.

 

[Spice]

If nothing, it's a huge compliment that they choose your video. Noticed an increase on this video compared to the others?