[Meph504]

I'm pretty sure that as part of the uploading process you agree to use YouTube process of arbitration in these matters, so the courts would likely tell you this a civil matter to be handled by YouTube.

With that said, nothing was stolen, a claim for the monetization reimbursement was made to YouTube, who is the sole source in deciding who the compensation goes to, decided to send that compensation to the party that made the claim.

Making a claim against an existing video is actually probably a lot safer than re-uploading and attempting to monetize.

From that perspective, what would be the grounds for a lawsuit?