LEGO YouTuber JediBricks Hit with Bogus Channel Demonetization

A popular LEGO The Lord of the Rings and Star Wars YouTuber has been demonetized by YouTube. JediBricks, an independent YouTuber who has amassed 23,000 subscribers in under two years, spoke out in a video published earlier today, revealing that two weeks ago his entire channel was demonetized.

For those unfamiliar with demonetization, it means that YouTube cuts off a channel's primary source of income - ad revenue. This means that the affected channel can either no longer run ads on videos, or if ads do play on the videos the channel will not receive any of that ad revenue.

JediBricks discusses his channel demonetization in the above video.

In a video posted this morning, JediBricks (aka Sam) explains that his channel has been demonetized due to his inclusion of short 2-5 second movie clips. One of YouTube's most controversial policies, the "Reused Content" policy, is responsible for the demonetization hit to JediBricks channel. In short, the Reused Content policy prohibits YouTubers from uploading videos that are not their own. An example of this would be to copy another YouTuber's vlog and reupload it, or to record over a movie and upload the movie to YouTube.

In JediBricks' videos, he regularly uses small movie clips from Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings for the purposes of either showing what scene a set is based on so viewers can better visualize them, or to make the videos more fun and enjoyable to watch. However, these clips are small and edited over, and JediBricks' usage of them clearly falls between Fair Use guidelines. Fair Use is the term used to describe content that has been edited, used as an example, critiqued, or otherwised transformed into new content which would not be classified as a plagiarism of said content.

While the likely cause of the demonetization is YouTube's AI detection system, this is not a small hit. Sam had recently adjusted his work schedule to allow for a more consistent upload schedule on the JediBricks channel, and even just temporary demonetization to a channel can be a financial gut-punch. If you'd like to support him, he has set up a Patreon which you can join here - the first 100 members will be able to sign up for free.

Sam puts lots of hard work and effort into his videos, including making custom creations such as the artwork below. These are set ideas and concepts he makes specifically for his YouTube channel to add further value to his videos. This adds further insult to injury in YouTube's claims of "reused content".

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