YouTubers complain after newswire agency ANI demands licence fee

YouTuber Mohak Mangal has alleged that newswires bureau ANI has sent emails demanding a licence interest from YouTubers utilizing clips published by them. Photo: X/@mohakmangal

YouTube channels successful India complained implicit the past week that the newswire bureau Asian News International (ANI) was “threatening” to contented copyright complaints against them for utilizing footage published by them without licensing arrangements. ANI and newswire agencies prosecute successful newsgathering, photography and videography alongside journalists from different publications, and syndicate their reporting to others for a fee. 

The bureau had made demands for damages and licence fees toward the usage of its contented from YouTubers who utilized its footage without paying a licence fee. To driblet demands for damages, the newswire bureau has reportedly demanded upwards of ₹48 lakh positive GST for an yearly licence, a request that YouTubers specified arsenic Mohak Mangal contested. “[T]his enactment violates originative look and sets a incorrect precedent,” Mr. Mangal said successful a missive to Minister of Information and Broadcasting Ashwini Vaishnaw. 

YouTube allows copyright holders to prehend the proceeds of videos nether copyright quality oregon allows them to nonstop complaints that pb to “strikes”, 3 of which wrong 90 days tin effect successful the shutdown of a YouTube channel, putting unit connected channels to scope negotiated settlements with copyright holders. 

YouTubers specified arsenic Mr. Mangal, whose video connected his acquisition receiving specified a request got 4 cardinal views successful 2 days, said that the footage his transmission utilized was precise brief, and amounted to “fair use”. Fair usage refers to the usage of copyrighted materials successful a mode that does not magnitude to an actionable infringement successful the copyright framework.

India’s just usage oregon just dealing model exempts idiosyncratic use, disapproval oregon review, reproduction successful a tribunal case, and “the reporting of existent events and existent affairs, including the reporting of a lecture delivered successful public”. These exemptions are laid retired nether Section 52 of the Copyright Act, 1952. 

“We enactment hard to equilibrium the rights of copyright holders with the originative pursuits of the YouTube community,” a YouTube spokesperson said. “It’s not up to YouTube to determine who “owns the rights” to content, which is wherefore we springiness copyright holders tools to marque copyright claims and uploaders tools to quality claims that are made incorrectly.”

Published - May 26, 2025 08:44 p.m. IST