Date: Friday, October 19, 2007
Google Reveal New YouTube Security System
When Viacom hit Google with $1billion copyright infringement lawsuit, it seemed that their investment in YouTube was a costly mistake. However, after six months of research and development, Google are preparing to roll out new YouTube security measures, which will stop copyrighted film and TV shows from appearing on the site.
The YouTube Video Identification security tool works by adding a digital ‘fingerprint’ to a film or TV show. Obviously, this means that media companies will have to send Google their footage to be security marked but as YouTube’s David King said, “we really need the content community to work we us. We need them to help us help them.” Watermarked footage will be easily identified by YouTube as copyrighted material and any user attempting to upload security marked material will be prevented from doing so.
As well as fighting copyright infringement, the Video Identification tool also has another useful feature for media companies. They will soon be able to upload their own footage on the site and make revenue by selling advertising space around the material. This footage would also be protected by the watermark system, ensuring that other users could not re-upload any segment of it.
Viacom and the other media companies that have pursued lawsuits with YouTube will obviously be delighted about these new developments. Mike Fricklas, Viacom’s general counsel, certainly seemed pleased when he admitted, “We are delighted that Google appears to be stepping up to its responsibility and ending the practice of infringement.” However, he failed to acknowledge whether Viacom would continue pursuing their mammoth lawsuit against the site.
One problem with the software is that it fails to deal with the copyrighted footage that is currently on the site. Google have a policy of removing any copyrighted footage as soon as they are made aware of it. However, with thousands of clips added every day, many media companies find they have to regularly trawl the site themselves to find and have clips removed.
Sources:
BBC News
Guardian
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