Senior Rachel Garstecki, 17, is the proud owner of her YouTube channel, “Rachalia,” which includes videos of her applying makeup, styling hair, etc. Garstecki had one of her videos go viral with over 1 million views, which has also led to her accumulating over 45,000 subscribers to her channel.

At a time, Garstecki was earning money from YouTube because of the popularity for her videos and the advertisements attached with them.

“During my peak, I was making around $900 a month, and that lasted for about 4 months” Garstecki said.

Recently, Garstecki has been facing from troubles with her rate of earnings from her videos due to copyright disputes. She has been accused of using background music without the rights to, but Garstecki confirmed that all the music used is public domain.

“There are different companies that make false copyright claims, and YouTube does not fight the disputes, so they give the said corporation the earnings that are supposed to go to the channel,” Garstecki said.

Garstecki explained that random “copyrighters” will claim the copyrights on public domain music that is independently made by individuals that share their music online. When Garstecki is contacted about her video disputes, she is not informed as to what “companies” made claims against her.

According to Garstecki, the “false claims” have made a huge difference on Garstecki’s earnings considering she is now only earning about $40 a month compared to her former $900 a month.

Garstecki is a hostess at Cracker Barrel in New Stanton and has recently had to pick up extra shifts due to her lack of earnings from YouTube.

Garstecki’s legal disputes have resulted in her not making as many videos.

“There’s really nothing I can do about it,” she said. “I’m sure I’ll start making videos soon, but for now, I’m just going to take a little break.”