Actually, this youtube stuff is NOT new. The content ID system has always been in place. The change has nothing to do with content ID, it has to do with the way Google changed the partner system.
In the past, there were 2 types of partners on youtube... "general partner" channels; which are channels that are partnered directly with Youtube. Youtube manages your partnership, and your income, and your ads, etc. You get very low ad-revenue being a general youtube partner. All videos in these general partner channels are automatically and swiftly dealt with using content ID. General partners are guilty until proven innocent.
The other type was something called a "managed partner" channel. Instead of being managed by Youtube, you are managed by an external company, such as Machinima, Fullscreen, Revision3, etc... These external companies were supposed to police their partner channels themselves, and thusly content ID was not enacted on these channels automatically; instead they required an actual notice from copyright holders before content ID was enacted on a video. Managed partners were essentially innocent until proven guilty.
However, last week Youtube changed managed partner channels into two separate categories. The majority of managed partner channels instead have become a new "affiliate partner" channel; which now follows the content ID system of the general partner system. People like myself, AngryJoe, and Max are now considered affiliate partners and suddenly the content ID system is getting charged to all of our videos.
That being said. ANYONE who publishes videos on YouTube, ANYONE who uses Google based advertising has long since resigned themselves to be under YouTube's boot. If YT decides tomorrow that the 8WR website violates their AdSense terms of service; we lose 95% of our revenue, and there is nothing we can do about it. AdSense TOS is so overbearing that Google can pretty much shut your website down for any reason they want. AdSense pays 10x better than everyone else, so we accept it and hope that we can hold onto it for as long as possible.
YouTube is the same; it pays better than anyone else... but don't be confused, FAIR USE DOES NOT TECHNICALLY EXIST. Fair Use is a ephemeral idea; it is not clearly defined and only exists IF and AFTER a judge holds your claim of fair use intact; until then, YOU HAVE NO LEGAL RIGHT to publish videos using other people's content. If you are posting a review video, using video/music from a video game, you are using someone else's content.
The reason why reviews for other content go through fine is because content owners KNOW they will lose against a fair use claim, so they don't bother. However, the problem here is that YouTube is taking content down automatically, without instruction or claims from content owners.
(which y'all can use btw)
