iMovie 2022 template copyright issue with YouTube.

At the outset, to find out your legal rights, you best should consult an attorney. Also, your license rights are contained in the iMovie license agreement that you can see when you click on iMovie/About iMovie/License agreement. In particular read paragraph 2G.

Usually it is the music that causes a movie to be flagged. What music from iMovie are you using? Although the audio samples in iMovie may be royalty free, that does not necessarily mean that they are copyright free when uploaded to the internet. There have been several posters to this forum over the years who have complained that iMovie audio samples have been flagged when included in a project that has been uploaded to social media. No way of knowing how many of the copyright complaints might be bogus.

You can try the link in the You Tube letter to get the claimant's contact information and dispute the claim, or at least find out the basis of it. If the claimant persists, ask to be provided with the copyright information. it would be your call whether it is worth the hassle or expense.

Alternatively, you might try switching out the music and using one of the songs that I believe You Tube offers. At least, it used to offer songs. Or just switching to another iMovie audio sample. Usually if those are flagged you have the option still to use the song, although with restrictions such as no monetization, or perhaps displays adds before viewing, or is restricted from playing it in certain countries, etc. Then, if the conditions are satisfactory to you you can use the song in your project.

-- Rich

The letter is indeed confusing, if not bizarre. It seems to be implying that there was no copyright claim filed against your video but rather that a copyright claim was filed against another video that they took down, and they contend that your video is a copy of that video and so they are taking yours down, too. Obviously they are not duplicate videos, except possibly the music and maybe the fonts. I've had copyright claims made for music used in a video, but never received a bizarre letter like you did.

If you haven't already done so, use the link that You Tube provided to contact the claimant and determine what the issue might be.

I am curious whether the video would be flagged if uploaded to a different website, like FaceBook or Vimeo or Instagram.

You might try removing the music and re-uploading it to You Tube to determine whether it is the music that is the issue, If no claim is made then perhaps you can substitute a different sound track and see if that passes muster. If it still gets flagged you can also try changing the fonts, although I seriously doubt that that is the problem.

Here's a link to Apple's legal issues website that might be of some help:

Legal - Contact Us - Apple

-- Rich