Retraction Basics

After submitting a copyright infringement notification, a copyright owner may realize that they've misidentified content or may change their mind about their complaint. When this happens, YouTube is glad to honor retractions of copyright claims from the party that originally submitted them.

If you removed a video:

If you're a content owner and wish to retract a copyright infringement notification, please make sure to send us the following information:

1. A statement of retraction (such as "I hereby retract my claim of copyright infringement")
2. The complete and specific URL of the video in question (like: www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxxxxxxxx)
3. An electronic signature (typing your full legal name will do)

Please submit your retraction to copyright@youtube.com from the same email address that was used to submit your original claim of infringement. If the email address is different, we may be unable to process your retraction.

If your video was removed:

If you're a user affected by a copyright claim, you may reach out to the copyright owner directly in search of a retraction.

If the claimant has a YouTube account, the easiest way to contact them is through YouTube's private messaging feature. You may ask the claimant to contact us directly at copyright@youtube.com with all the items listed above.

Please note that we will only process retractions that are sent from the same email address or domain that submitted the original claim of copyright infringement.