In June 2006, Google confirmed the rumorsof a promised Copyright filtering engine for YouTube. As far as I can tell, the Filter hasn’t been fully implemented yet. You can sign up for a beta, however. The plan, in a nutshell, is for content owners to help build a database of copyrighted material (i.e. videos) for their filter to use in a matching algorithm.
“Copyright owners get the right to add advertising to the video or request the content be taken down under the “Video Identification” program, which requires copyright holders to help Google create the database.”
Wired: Google Unveils YouTube Copyright Filter to Mixed Reviews
Weeks ago Google announced that it was deploying a beta test of the system on YouTube, but since then there has been no information. In contrast, a Google lawyer in the Viacom lawsuit, told the presiding judge that:
”the copyright filter it promised entertainment companies last fall would be live on the site — ‘hopefully’ by September.”
The Hollywood Reporter: YouTube can’t filter two sets of critics; Billboard Magazine: More Delays For YouTube Filtering Technology?
September came and went, as did October and now November is slipping away. The content industry has nothing good to say about the filtering scheme, and Google has been silent. The last message about the system on the Google blog was Oct. 15, 2007. Can we start to refer to this as a failed project? Part of the problem might be that the system is not really being built in house, as most things Google, but is reported to be licensing AudibleMagic’s filtering engine. Having been in the software game for over a decade, I can say without reservation that is the beta were going well, you would have heard about it by now.
Filed under: Copyright
