Google has faced a lengthy stream of complaints and a lawsuit from Viacom over the continued uploading of copyrighted videos by YouTube users. The debut of their long-awaited content ID tool could help its relationship with Hollywood.
YouTube Finally Gains Anti-Piracy Tool
The beta version of YouTube Video Identification has been in the works at Google for some time. They announced its availability, and took a moment on the official Google blog to chastise their critics, too:
Like many of these other policies and tools, Video Identification goes above and beyond our legal responsibilities.
Google has long claimed compliance with the safe harbor provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act defined its responsibility for the uploading habits of YouTube’s users. Major studios have complained about Google’s reactive but legal approach, as it dumped the burden of identifying offending content back on the studios.
However, Google is holding out hope that studios will see the positive side of uploading, by taking advantage of the option to promote or even monetize these videos when they appear. Content owners also have a choice of blocking the content.
Considering the criticism and rhetoric coming out of Hollywood, blocking looks like the selection content owners will likely make on a routine basis.
“The best we can do is cooperate with copyright holders to identify videos that include their content and offer them choices about sharing that content,” YouTube said of the new program.
