Leila Djansi reveals how her movie was stolen and monetized on YouTube

Filmmaker Leila Djansi has shared her personal struggles with piracy and copyright abuse on YouTube, saying her experience taught her hard lessons about online platforms.

She revealed that she has worked in the YouTube space for many years and understands how the system works.

“In 2012, I was building, managing, and consulting on multiple YouTube channels,” she said. “I built and consulted on a channel that now has over 2.6 million subscribers.”

She also said that by 2015, her personal channel was earning good income.

“By 2015, my personal channel was earning $7,000 a month before policy changes and piracy wiped that out,” she stated.

Leila explained that her work was stolen and uploaded by pirates who made money from it.

“My work was stolen. Pirates claimed my original content,” she said. “Someone uploaded my film And Then There Was You and pulled over two million views.”

She added that tracing the person behind the account was difficult.

“I could not trace him because the address was fake. It took months of legal pressure before YouTube demonetized his channel,” she noted.

She also spoke about facing criticism when she warned others.

“When I spoke about this, people told me I did not understand YouTube. Someone called me an ‘oldie’,” she said.

Despite the challenges, Leila said she has evidence of what happened and has learned to be cautious.

“I am careful with names now, but there is a paper trail,” she stated.

She encouraged filmmakers to protect their work and think carefully before relying on online platforms.

“Approach filmmaking as a business,” she advised.