What’s Happening?

NASCAR YouTubers have been subject to numerous copyright claims in recent weeks, causing videos to get demonetized. NASCAR’s Chief Digital Officer, Tim Clark, commented on the matter saying that NASCAR did not initiate the claims, blaming it on the “Automated” YouTube process. He reiterated NASCAR’s desire to “Encourage” content on YouTube.

• Many NASCAR YouTubers spoke out on social media when the claims first surfaced. As the week went on, some YouTubers also mentioned that copyright claims had been lifted on their channels. However, some YouTubers are still getting hit.
• NASCAR has generally been very forgiving with its copyright policy on YouTube. Usually, fans are allowed to use NASCAR content relatively freely to make other types of content.
• Fans are pretty encouraged by this. There was some uncertainty about how NASCAR YouTubers would move forward if NASCAR started cracking down on these types of videos.

The Copyright Debacle

Earlier this week, NASCAR YouTubers began to share that their videos were being demonetized thanks to a NASCAR copyright claim. For some YouTubers, multiple videos were being claimed. Brock Beard was one example.

ElitePrecision29 was another YouTuber that was hit. He claimed that NASCAR hit 5 videos with copyright claims in one day.

On Thursday, Tim Clark of NASCAR made the comment that we broke down earlier. Around the time that happened, YouTubers such as Brock Beard mentioned that their videos were being monetized once again.

Despite this, some YouTubers are still getting affected. Ben Schneider mentioned that he had a video get hit with a claim, and his video was demonetized. It seems the issue is not all resolved yet.

NASCAR’s Support of YouTubers

NASCAR has been fairly forgiving in terms of enforcing copyrights on YouTube. The fact that each of these videos existed and were at one point monetized is proof of that.

Before NASCAR Classics was a thing, many NASCAR fans on YouTube would upload classic NASCAR races either in full or in parts so that fans could watch them for free. NASCAR would rarely take those races off of YouTube altogether. However, starting in 2014, NASCAR started uploading full races on YouTube, and they became understandably more strict about policing uploads of those newer races.

NASCAR has gone out of its way to support YouTubers in other ways as well. YouTubers have been given behind-the-scenes access at races in the past.

NASCAR seems like they are trying to rectify the current situation. However, it’s still not been completely solved yet.

What’s next for NASCAR on YouTube? Will there be any changes in the coming weeks?