Youtube will begin testing Copyright Screening Technology

In a move long overdue, YouTube will begin to test it's new technology to identify copyrighted video that is uploaded to the site. According to Reuters, the technology scan is a "video fingerprinting tool" that will look for attributes in the video clips that it will be able to determine if the clip is copyrighted. I'm still not sure how well this will work or how they are going to get the "fingerprints" of the content beforehand on record.

I think for larger copyright holders this will be a good move for both them and YouTube. YouTube will give the holder the option to remove the clip or leave it up on the site and join a revenue sharing deal with YT. I'm not sure if this will be done for all users of YouTube or just for their bigger clients i.e. CBS, NBC. In addition, it looks like YouTube abandoned plans to do a deal with Audible Magic to provide this technology. In the end, I think that some of YouTube's traffic could be affected by this. There are a number of sites out there that still take a relaxed approach to copyrighted content being uploaded to its site.

Cutcaster is working on a logical way to detect whether content that is uploaded to the site is copyrighted and thus not able to be licensed. This is a big problem when trying to create an open marketplace where the participants feel that they are secure and can use the content they legally purchased without the fear that it will come back later to bite them in the butt. I'll be very excited to hear what people think of our solution when they see it after the launch. If you have any questions beforehand, please email me.