At the heart of the controversy is YouTube's Content ID system, external - the automatic process which decides whether a video contains copyright infringement.
Steven Bridges, a magician with more than 178,000 subscribers on YouTube, tells the BBC how this might have happened.
"Content ID is in place to make sure people don't use content without permission of the original creator," Steven explained.
"YouTube's systems automatically scan videos and detect if they've got, for example, a pop song in the background.
"If the video does, then the owner of the song could be notified, and they can choose whether they want the video to be left online, or whether they want to monetise the video themselves.
"It's a great system but it has its faults. For example, sometimes content can be wrongly demonetised or taken down. Certain companies can 'claim' videos if they find copyrighted material in them, regardless of whether YouTube's Content ID detected it.
"The creator has to go through an appeal process if they think it's been unjustly claimed.
"It's a complicated thing."
By Tom Gerken, BBC UGC & Social News team