YouTube rolls out anti-piracy tools

 

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By Stuart Turton

Posted on 16 Oct 2007 at 15:44

YouTube has begun beta testing its new anti-piracy technology, which will immediately identify copyrighted clips as they are uploaded to the site.

The YouTube Video Identification technology works by scanning original video content and storing it as a reference file, which is then compared to any new clips uploaded to the site.

Original content owners who have submitted material to the database then have a choice in how they want to treat copies of it that appear on the site. They can have it blocked, or leave it up and have advertisements sold around it.

YouTube said in June that it had been privately testing the technology with nine media companies, including several movie studios, though it would only name Walt Disney and Time Warner.

YouTube already employs a technology to prevent duplicate clips of copyrighted material from being re-uploaded and audio fingerprinting to help identify copyrighted music from partners including Warner, Sony and Universal.

However, it has long argued that, so far as video copyright is concerned, it is fulfilling its legal obligations by pulling copyrighted material from its site when notified, with Steve Chen, YouTube cofounder, recently describing the new video identification system as "going above and beyond legal requirements."

"The challenge is speed and scale to support the millions of people who use YouTube every day," comments Chen on the Google blog.

"We are working with some of the major media companies to test what we have developed. We're excited about the progress so far, and we're dedicated to making these tests successful, but as always with cutting-edge technologies, there's no guarantee of success."

There is no word yet on whether the new anti-piracy tools will be enough to placate Viacom, which recently sued YouTube for $1 billion for hosting clips of its copyrighted material.