YouTube is testing a new video identification technology that will identify copyright content in videos to prevent pirated content from being uploaded and circulated within the video-sharing site. This initial testing is in conjunction with Time Warner Inc and Walt Disney Co, two of the largest media companies today.
Developed by engineers at Google (YouTube’s mother company), this fingerprinting software is designed to recognize unique elements in the video clips that would help media companies to identify videos that are illegally uploaded, and eventually, block these copyrighted clips from being distributed or be subjected to licensing negotiations with owners.
Meanwhile, since much of the videos uploaded in YouTube are homegrown, some copyright content (such as those from CBS and NBC) attract more viewers and thus are beneficial to these broadcast companies as promotional avenues. Hence, more than the video imprinting tool, YouTube executives aim to protect relationships with media companies for a healthier give-and-take conditions.
This video fingerprint tool will be available in a month for testing, and widely available for use to copyright owners later this year.
Originally posted on June 13, 2007 @ 1:53 pm