How to Find and Remove Reuploaded Videos on YouTube

Reuploading—colloquially known as “freebooting”—is one of the most persistent and damaging forms of copyright infringement on YouTube. A creator spends hours scripting, filming, and editing an original video, only to have an opportunistic pirate download it and re-upload it to their own channel. Often, these pirates copy the exact title, tags, and thumbnail to siphon off organic traffic and advertising revenue. If your channel’s success relies on exclusive content, you must actively police the platform. Here is a definitive guide on how to locate your stolen videos on YouTube and execute the legal procedures necessary to remove them.

Part 1: How to Find Reuploaded Videos

You cannot report what you cannot see. The first challenge is identifying the theft among the billions of videos hosted on YouTube.

1. Utilize the Copyright Match Tool

If your channel is part of the YouTube Partner Program (YPP), your first and best defense is the built-in Copyright Match Tool.

• Navigate to your YouTube Studio dashboard.
• Click on the Copyright tab in the left-hand menu.
• Click on the Matches tab.

YouTube automatically scans subsequent platform uploads against the videos you have published. If it finds a full or near-full visual match, it will list it here. You can see the channel that reuploaded it, the percentage of the video that matches your original, and how many views the stolen video has accumulated.

2. Manual Keyword and Title Searching

The Copyright Match Tool is highly effective, but it is not perfect. It struggles with heavily cropped videos or compilations. Therefore, manual searching is still required.

Pirates are consistently lazy. They want to capture the search intent surrounding your original popular video, so they frequently copy your video title word-for-word. Set aside time each week to search YouTube for your exact video titles enclosed in quotation marks (e.g., “My Awesome Tutorial 2026”). Sort the search results by “Upload Date” to quickly spot new accounts trying to ride the coattails of your recent release.

3. Set Google Alerts

Set up a series of Google Alerts for your unique brand name, your channel name, and the titles of your most popular videos. While this searches the broader internet rather than just YouTube, Google indexes YouTube heavily. If a pirate uploads your content and uses your name in the description to keyword stuff, a Google Alert will notify you immediately in your inbox.

Part 2: How to Remove the Reuploaded Videos

Once you have located a reuploaded video, you must issue a formal legal takedown request. Do not waste time leaving angry comments or asking the pirate nicely to remove it viewing; rely on official DMCA procedures.

Using the Copyright Match Dashboard

If you found the video using the Matches tab, removal is incredibly simple:

1. Check the box next to the matching video.
2. Click the icon that looks like an exclamation point inside a circle (Request video removal).
3. This will open a pre-filled copyright takedown form. Select whether you want immediate removal or a 7-day scheduled removal, verify your contact information, electronically sign the legal agreements, and click submit.

Using the Standard DMCA Webform

If you found the stolen video via a manual search, you must use the standard reporting tool:

1. Go to the page of the stolen video.
2. Click the three dots (…) below the video player and select Report.
3. Choose Infringes my rights followed by Copyright issue.
4. You will be taken to the “Submit a copyright takedown request” page inside YouTube Studio.
5. Carefully fill out the required legal fields, provide the exact URL of both the stolen video and your original video, provide your legal contact information, sign electronically, and submit.

If your claim is valid, YouTube will typically remove the video and issue a copyright strike to the offending channel within 24 to 48 hours.

The Operational Drain of Manual Enforcement

While the steps above are highly effective for independent creators dealing with occasional theft, they become completely unsustainable for scaling businesses and high-output agencies. For popular brands, videos are stolen daily. Searching keywords manually and filling out complex DMCA webforms for every stolen clip quickly becomes a full-time job, draining resources that should be dedicated to growth.

How TrustNet Security Automates Video Takedowns

To eliminate the operational burden of copyright enforcement, professional creators and brands turn to TrustNet Security.

TrustNet Security provides comprehensive, enterprise-level Digital Risk Protection that completely automates the protection of your video assets. Rather than relying on manual searches or YouTube’s limited internal tools, our proprietary AI and optical recognition algorithms continuously scan the entire global internet—including YouTube, alternative video platforms, and pirate streaming hubs.

Our technology detects reuploaded content instantaneously, even if the pirate has made advanced visual edits to trick standard algorithms. When theft is detected, TrustNet Security assumes complete control of the enforcement lifecycle. Utilizing established “trusted flagger” escalation pathways, our legal analysts execute rapid, seamless DMCA takedowns on your behalf. Partnering with TrustNet Security transforms video protection from a manual, exhausting chore into an automated, invisible shield, allowing you to focus entirely on expanding your digital footprint.

Conclusion

Reuploading is a direct assault on your channel’s revenue and reputation. Finding and removing these stolen videos is a necessary component of digital content management. While manual tools and the Copyright Match Tool serve as a functional starting point, the most successful brands understand that aggressive, automated enforcement via professional anti-piracy services is the only way to safeguard their intellectual property at scale.