News: YouTube already has audio filtering in place from Audible Magic, to help identify unauthorized music files on clips. Yesterday, YouTube announced that it is developing its own filtering for video content. Next month, YT will be testing the beta version of the filtering program with Disney and Time Warner, who agreed to be a part of the testing. More here and here.
Analysis: The video fingerprinting technology would be a huge development if successful. A lot of people mistakenly believe that such technology already exists. It doesn’t, at least not in effective fashion. Audio files are much easier to track (esp. through Audible Magic). The visual video files are more difficult. If YouTube and Google are successful in developing this new technology, concerns about copyright liability against YouTube start to diminish. The allegations that somehow YT’s business plan is based on promoting copyright infringement on its site become even more hollow.
