Datatec Web Log

YouTube on Monday rolled out long-awaited technology to automatically remove copyrighted clips, hoping to placate movie and television studios fed up with the Web site’s persistent piracy problems.
The filtering tools are designed so the owners of copyrighted video can block their material from appearing on YouTube, which has become a pop culture phenomenon in its 2-year existence. The tools also give the owners of copyrighted video the option to sell ads around their material if they want the clips to remain available on YouTube.

To find and remove copyrighted music, YouTube already uses separate filtering tools developed by Los Gatos-based Audible Magic Corp.

YouTube’s previous lack of copyright protections for video content prompted Viacom Inc. to sue it for $1 billion for showing thousands of clips that the New York-based company owned.

As YouTube’s traffic soared, movie and TV studios became increasingly frustrated with the rampant piracy fueling its popularity, though YouTube said it has followed copyright laws by removing protected video upon request.

Studios’ exasperation with YouTube escalated as other popular Web sites introduced filtering technology in recent months to prevent copyrighted material from being uploaded.

YouTube’s critics have argued that the site turned a blind eye to flagrant piracy so it could show more appealing material to build its audience and pump up its value. Google prized San Bruno-based YouTube so much it paid $1.76 billion to buy the site 11 months ago.

YouTube has been working with Google engineers ever since to develop the tools needed to flag copyrighted video, said David King, a YouTube product manager.

Datatec Office Comment:
YouTube Google etc, will allways be battling between freedom of data and censorship.
Neither can have afford to have their sites taken off the air due to unsavoury information being displayed.
But they would also like to uphold the freedom of the net.
Guess capatilism wins out again. (Thank God !)