So the other violation (besides sexual) Adsense says is Copyright. Well I checked other similar websites of same theme as mine and all of them have exactly the same video embedded into their pages!

So I'm at my wit's end on what to do next. The email is "no reply" so I cant explain to Adsense either.. We'll wait it out I guess.. :-)

Trying to understand the situation - your site has embedded a YouTube video and the video's copyright owner has filed a copyright complaint? AdSense is not serving ads until you comply with the copyright owner's terms? If that is what has happened, I would not try "waiting it out". I would investigate the terms and see if they require attribution or license to embed their video. Until you have an agreement on terms you should remove the video.

NOT legal advice, you'd need a lawyer for that. It's just what I would do if it were my site.

Agreed not2easy, but no copyright owner has contacted us firstly. Secondly it's a movie song video and at least 20-30 websites which are huge have embedded these videos for a long time w/o problems.

But you are right about copyright violations, so I've contacted the video owners in question to ask them if they don't allow embedding of their videos. But doesn't youtube have a setting which disallows external sites from embedding videos?

Also, I've filed an appeal with adsense so am waiting for the reply. Thanks!

but no copyright owner has contacted us

You are supposed to ask permission to use copyright content before using it, not wait for them to contact you after you have been using it. They are supposed to post any copyright limitations or terms where the video is available, such as at YouTube. This should be visible so that viewers know before using.

This is a real grey area. Youtube is a video-sharing service. When you upload a video, there is no granular control over who shares your videos or where it shared. You can disable embedding but that's about it.

I'm not sure how a copyright holder can object if a webmaster embeds a video that (a) the copyright holder has uploaded, and (b) the copyright holder has opened up for embedding.

I can understand Adsense objecting if the video is being 'double-monetised', I guess. But what if you're monetising your own original content and the video is simply being included to complement it?

What if you just link to the video concerned so that your users watch it on Youtube? Is that also a copyright breach?

And while we're here, what about the well known song lyrics site that plasters Adsense ads next to someone else's lyrics and a Youtube of the relevant song? Where are the copyright police in that instance?

All this is about as clear as mud.

Some get caught, others do not. In all respect, the fact that others do someting is not a valid excuse to argue against why you were singled out.

From Youtube's T&Cs for uploaders:

For clarity, you retain all of your ownership rights in your Content. However, by submitting Content to YouTube, you hereby grant YouTube a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicenseable and transferable license to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, publish, adapt, make available online or electronically transmit, and perform the Content in connection with the Service...
You also hereby grant each user of the Service a non-exclusive license to access your Content through the Service, and to use, reproduce, distribute, display, publish, make available online or electronically transmit, and perform such Content as permitted through the functionality of the Service and under these Terms of Service.

That is quite clear: if you upload content to Youtube then other Youtube users are entitled to share, distribute and republish it. @born2run, what does the notification actually say?

Trebuchet the notification said about copyright violation and sexual content both. If it's about sexual content then why is it approved on Youtube? :-(

So my appeal also got denied. We have been embedding Youtube videos of songs from movies for years now. All the top movie sites have been doing the same (and I checked they've embedded the same video song in question).

Unfortunately Adsense didn't tell me what other videos are in violation again. I had deleted the video url in question from my site and then filed an appeal.

It seems I've become a guinea pig.. but it's OK. I'll contact some other folks in Google and see if they can help. Otherwise I'll file another appeal. BTW any advice?

The sexual content thing I can understand. We already know that Adsense is about as liberal as a Puritan aunt. Plus Youtube can restrict adult content through log ins, whereas websites cannot.

The copyright issue has me flummoxed though. Embedding is sharing, not republishing as your own. And Adsense's T&Cs contain nothing about Youtube and copyright. As mentioned in a previous thread it really shouldn't be a problem, provided there's enough original content on the page to warrant ads without the video.

I shall keep all you guys updated shortly. Thanks for the points raised.. and help.

So I got reinstated :-)

I have been advised to get permissions from music companies who are posting these videos to embed them in my site.

Is there any embedded video license settings or file in YouTube ?

Congratulations.

How did you managed to got reinstated after appeal was denied ? Kindly share your experience as it will be very useful to someone in your situation.

Dhillon: They give you multiple chances.

There are more than a few stories where they didn't give someone multiple chances, so best to play it safe and not push it.

Read the rules and understand them fully before adding content that may be volatile.

[support.google.com...]

[fix typo]

[edited by: keyplyr at 7:33 am (utc) on Aug 5, 2017]

Agreed 100% keyplyr so I am contacting Youtube video owners for copyright permissions to embed them next week.

I expect you've been given "multiple chances" because Google knows it's guidelines on this issue are as murky as hell.

There's no embedding/licensing options in Youtube. I guess the only way to obtain permission is to contact the uploaders (presuming they are the copyright holders) through their Youtube account.

Yep IMHO it was much ado about nothing :)

[edited by: not2easy at 1:49 pm (utc) on Aug 5, 2017]
[edit reason] translate encoding [/edit]

Agreed. Nevertheless I'll have to review my use of Youtube videos. Most of the ones I embed are mine. But I do have a handful (eight or nine, I think) from other publishers. Most are demos/training videos that are not integral to my content and could be removed without fuss. I expect that clips with commercial value (e.g. songs, movie clips, sports footage) are more likely to attract attention from Adsense.

trebuchet - you make some good points. Google has no doubt become more stringent enforcing their rules regarding Adsense in relation to on-page Youtube embedded videos. I agree their ToS should be more explicit in this area.