YouTube will soon test a new video identification technology with two of the world's largest media companies, Time Warner and Walt
Disney.
The technology, developed by engineers at YouTube-owner
Google, will help content owners such as movie and
TV studios identify videos uploaded to the site without
the copyright owner's permission, legal, according to Youtube representatives.
The so-called video fingerprinting tools, which identify
unique attributes in the video clips, will be available
for testing in about a month, a YouTube executive said.
These tools will be used to identify copyrighted
material, after which media companies can decide if they
would like to remove the material or keep it up, as part
of a revenue-sharing deal with YouTube, which can sell
advertising alongside it.
Once proven to work, the technology could be used to
block the uploading of copyrighted clips, YouTube
product manager David King said. It aims to make the
tools widely available to any copyright owner later this
year.