Storyful Arvostelua 

I've been making videos for YouTube for more than 10 years. My channels are not monetized. Recently I received an email claiming to be from Storyful, 8 Harcourt Street, Dublin 2, Ireland. The scam is the bad guys makes a copyright claim against a creator (me) on YouTube. YouTube pulls the video, informs the creator of a copyright strike and the bad guy sends an email demanding 500 Euros ($500) or they will not withdraw the claim. The sad thing is that my case falls within fair-use and there was no copyright or watermark on the video. I have never had a strike after posting over 400 videos. It's a scam and I have reported them to the Dublin police.

⭐ 1-Star Review – Very Concerning Experience

I recently had a troubling experience with Storyful regarding a YouTube Short I uploaded.

The video I used was publicly circulating online. I created my own edited version with different audio and ensured it complied with YouTube’s content policies before publishing. There was no visible watermark, logo, or ownership credit attached to the original clip.

Despite this, Storyful issued a copyright claim on my video.

To prevent further complications, I voluntarily deleted the video—even though it included my original edits—and contacted them respectfully to resolve the issue and request removal of the strike.

However, instead of a clear and transparent resolution process, I was asked to make a payment in order to remove the claim. This felt highly inappropriate and concerning.

If a company is asserting rights over publicly circulating content, there should be:

Clear proof of ownership

Transparent communication

A fair dispute process

Pressuring creators for payment to resolve claims raises serious concerns.

I would also urge YouTube to carefully review and monitor how copyright enforcement is being handled in such cases, to ensure creators are not subjected to unfair or coercive practices.

Content creators should exercise extreme caution and thoroughly verify rights before engaging in any agreements.

Very disappointing and stressful experience.

Almost ereything in my first encounter with this company was riddled with them being decietful.

They are a media agregator who reach out to people to license their content. They are very aggressive when they want your clip. Over a video I own, they reached out to me on tiktok, email, my cell phone, and instagram. I assume they would have on YouTube too if they had a way.

A woman from New Dehli reached out to me.

They try to send a contract giving up exclusive rights on your videos for low ball figures, and they don't tell you.

The contract is filled with other aggressive clauses lay people don't understand, like administrative fees and the like. A "net trap". Where they can claw back your earnings with whatever legalse argument they'd like.

I called them on these things.

A colleague, purportedly, sharing the same phone number from USA, but based in India, then told me nonsensically "we're going to pass on the deal because we couldn't confirm your video".

This made no sense and was being decietful, as her colleague had already verified the video was mine. It was a cop out.

I called them on this too.

A second time she then just tried to misdirect me, and not own up to it.

I looked the company up on Reddit where there's multiple complaints about the contract and decietful tactics as well. Others have signed away the rights of their videos for life, not realizing it was exclusive terms/what that meant.

Do yourself a favor, if you get a contract to sign from Storyful, use AI to scan in it for help to make sure you truly agree with everything it is saying,