Downloading copyrighted media from a hosting site and reuploading it elsewhere without the creator's permission, typically to grow a following or collect ad revenue.

Where did Freebooting come from?

Brady Haran coined the online-slang sense on Hello Internet episode 5 with CGP Grey on February 26, 2014, after pitching it as a harder word than 'infringing'.

What does Freebooting mean?

In creator usage, it means reposting someone else's video to your own platform without credit or permission and pocketing the engagement that would have gone to the original uploader.

How do you use Freebooting?

Creators use it as an accusation against accounts that lift their videos, often alongside guides for reporting the offending upload through Facebook's or YouTube's copyright systems.

Is Freebooting still popular?

The word saw heaviest use in 2014 and 2015 around the Facebook native-video dispute, with YouTuber-facing guides on reporting infringing reuploads keeping the term in circulation afterward.

Freebooting

2014catchphraseclassic

Published November 15, 2026

Freebooting is the creator-economy word for ripping a video off YouTube and reuploading it elsewhere for views and ad money without the creator's permission1. Brady Haran coined the online sense on Hello Internet episode 5 in February 2014 after deciding that 'infringing' was too soft a word for what was happening to his videos1. By January 2015, SmarterEveryDay's Facebook video on the subject brought the term into mainstream YouTube arguments about Facebook's native-upload bias2.

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Overview

A freebooter grabs a trending YouTube clip, strips credit and watermarks, and reuploads it as native content to another platform, where the algorithm often prefers direct uploads to embeds2. The reposter collects the likes, shares and ad money the original creator would have earned, which is what makes the word sting in YouTuber vocabulary. Brady Haran picked the sea-piracy term because its connotation hit harder than tidy legal labels like 'infringement'1. The English word itself goes back centuries, with an early print appearance in explorer James Richardson's 1853 travel narrative on central Africa5.

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Origin & Background

Platform

Podcast (Hello Internet) / Facebook (viral spread)

Creator

Brady Haran

Date

2014

Brady Haran introduced the slang sense on episode 5 of Hello Internet, the podcast he co-hosts with CGP Grey, on February 26, 20141. Haran argued that 'infringing' sounded too polite for what YouTubers were seeing, so he went digging through old English words for sea piracy and landed on 'freebooting'1. CGP Grey used it in the same episode when talking about a clip of their podcast that someone had freebooted to YouTube1. The next day, an Urban Dictionary user with the handle Icanshowyoutheworld submitted the first slang entry, defining it as taking online media and re-hosting it on your website6.

How It Spread

The r/freebooting subreddit opened on March 10, 2014 as a reporting and discussion hub for creators tracking reuploads5. Wider reach came on January 19, 2015, when Destin Sandlin of SmarterEveryDay uploaded a Facebook video arguing that Facebook's native-upload bias was feeding mass freebooting of YouTubers' work2. That post drew more than 420,000 views and 3,300 comments in its first four months5. Two days later, SourceFed covered the same complaint in a YouTube explainer about Facebook freebooting3. On May 12, 2015, video-marketing blog Reel Seo (now Tubular Insights) published a step-by-step guide for creators on reporting freebooted videos through Facebook's copyright system4.

Timeline

2014-02-26

Brady Haran introduces 'freebooting' on Hello Internet episode 5 with CGP Grey.

2014-02-27

Urban Dictionary user Icanshowyoutheworld submits the first slang entry for the word.

2014-03-10

The r/freebooting subreddit launches as a creator-side reporting and discussion hub.

2014-05-24

Wiktionary adds 'the unauthorized re-hosting of online media' to its freebooting entry.

2015-01-19

Destin Sandlin of SmarterEveryDay uploads a Facebook video about freebooting that draws over 420,000 views in four months.

2015-01-21

SourceFed posts a YouTube explainer on how Facebook freebooting hurts YouTubers.

2015-05-12

Reel Seo publishes a guide for creators on reporting freebooted videos to Facebook.

How to Use This Meme

Writers typically use 'freebooting' as an accusation against an account that lifted their video, often paired with a specific example post or a copyright-report screenshot. A common convention is to distinguish it from 'mirroring,' which describes non-commercial archival re-hosts of censored or lost media1. Reports go through the hosting platform's copyright system, and creator guides often include step-by-step reporting instructions aimed specifically at Facebook uploads4.