Google adds copyright protection to YouTube

by Jan Harris

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Google has revealed plans to use sophisticated copyright protection technology to prevent the unauthorised posting of copyright video on YouTube.

The search engine hopes to have the content filtering software running on YouTube by September.

The plans were revealed by Philip Beck, a lawyer representing Google in a case brought by English football’s Premier League and US music publisher Bourne Co.

The plaintiffs allege that YouTube encourages copyright infringement on its website in order to generate public attention and increase traffic.

According to Mr Beck, Google’s new copyright protection software is as sophisticated as fingerprinting technology used by the FBI.

The software will enable copyright holders to submit a digital fingerprint. This will be compared with any videos uploaded to YouTube, allowing attempts to upload copyright content to be quickly blocked.

Although lawyers for the plaintiffs welcomed the news, they said that YouTube should have acted earlier.

YouTube does not currently attempt to check whether material is copyrighted before it is uploaded, although it does take down copyright-infringing clips when they are discovered.

‘Copyright Tips’ on the YouTube site warn users only to upload clips that they have created themselves.

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