If you want to be able to upload your own content to YouTube and maybe even making money off that content, you need to abide by copyright laws. And that's enforced. Copyright owners and YouTube themselves actively police videos looking for copyright infringements, and if they find something, even the smallest thing, consequences can range from having the copyright owner make money off your video or even having your video taken down, or your channel banned. This is an issue as sometimes some content creators will break copyright laws by accident. It's a very imperfect system, and YouTube knows this, which is why they are testing copyright checks during upload.

This feature does exactly what it sounds like it does: it runs your video through a check and tries to catch any potential copyright infringements before you publish it. YouTube actually has something called Content ID, which automatically scans videos against a database of copyrighted content and automatically flags them if something is found. We're guessing that the way this will work is that YouTube will run this Content ID check before the video is published rather than after the fact. If it finds something, then it will give you a chance to correct those issues before the video is published.

Now, the introduction of this feature will probably not be quite enough to fix the whole system. Even if nothing in your video trips this check, copyright owners can still strike your video after it's published. This also means that copyright trolling might still be an issue going forward. Still, this check will help at least a bit by allowing users to not have their whole channel banned or their video demonetized or taken down if, for example, they include a short clip or snip of a copyrighted song/video by accident or because they didn't know it was wrong.

If the feature is not showing up yet for you, have in mind that it's probably being A/B tested right now, given the lack of official announcements. I tried uploading a video and it's not showing up for me yet. Still, it'll be a pretty neat feature to have once it finally rolls out to everyone, as it'll stop a lot of channels from getting wrongly banned.

Update: YouTube's copyright "Checks" feature is now official

YouTube has published a support page highlighting its new copyright "Checks" feature. The support page reveals that the new feature will start rolling out to YouTube Studio desktop today, and it will automatically screen the videos you upload for "potential copyright claims and ad-suitability restrictions."

When uploading a new video, you'll now see a new "checks" step on the desktop version of YouTube Studio. The step will screen your video for potential copyright claims. If you're a part of the YouTube Partner Programme, the feature will also check your video for ad-suitability. This will give you an opportunity to dispute a claim before your video is published and fix any issues that might affect ad-suitability.

The entire copyright checks process will take about 3 minutes, but the ad-suitability check may take a bit longer. In both cases, the feature will show you a time estimate. The YouTube support page also states that you'll still be able to publish videos without performing these checks, but that may limit its visibility or monetization if any issues are found at a later stage.

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Furthermore, YouTube explains that if the feature finds a copyright claim during the check it will show you an option to see more details. Clicking on this option will show you the content being claimed with the timecode it appears at, along with the impact the claim will have on your video. In case the feature finds an ad-suitability issue, you'll see an option to request a review. Clicking on this option will send your video for review and you will receive an update via email when the review is complete. Want to learn more? Follow this link to find the Help Center article about YouTube's new Checks feature.