February 12th, 2007
MySpace offers filtering software ahead of YouTube
With pressure mounting on Google-owned YouTube to make available the copyright filtering software it's long promised, MySpace has upped the anti by delivering first. The News Corp-owned social networking site has licensed audio fingerprinting technology developed by Audible Magic, which is able to help identify the origins of a video's soundtrack, so that unauthorized content can be blocked. This is exactly the type of software that YouTube is supposed to be developing, in its attempt to appease the television networks and record labels whose copyright is continually being infringed by users who upload content to the site. The accusation leveled by the major content owners is that YouTube has been dragging its feet — something that MySpace's announcement appears to validate.
As Reuters reports:
MySpace's move leapfrogs YouTube's efforts to roll out the ability to identify and block videos uploaded by users without copyright permission. YouTube does not screen for copyright-protected videos during the uploading process. In a conference call, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said the company would roll out the system in stages soon, but gave no timeline.
But some of the companies that have signed deals with YouTube have grown impatient.
Related post: Viacom to YouTube: show us the money (and those filtering tools you promised) and Universal does YouTube a favor, and sues MySpace
Steve O'Hear is a London-based consultant, educator, and journalist, focussing on the Internet and all aspects of digital technology. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
