Gameplays on youtube

I have a few questions about youtube. Is it illegal to upload a non-monetized gameplay video to youtube or can you just  upload any gameplay video to youtube that you are not making money of? I'd like to start uploading gameplay videos but I don't know much about copyright stuff and I don't want my youtube account to get banned. And if you want to make money out of gameplay videos what network should you join? Because of what I've heard you can't make money out of gaming videos if you are partnered directly with youtube/google.

i think it's if you have a copy righted character on the screen for long than 10 mins? im just guessing based on what's i've heard and seen.

How do you know if the character is copyrighted?

I don't know if this helps, but I've uploaded tons of gameplay to youtube (http://www.youtube.com/user/Vincent831Blue/about), and the only thing I've gotten copyright strikes on is some yakuza 5 footage. It depends on which company's content you upload (Sega and Rockstar are notorious for copyright strikes). But for the most part, companies consider gameplay as free advertisement and don't do anything about it.