Google Hopes to Moot YouTube Copyright Woes

Software Will Automate Removal of Copyright-Protected Video

By Ted Hearn -- Multichannel News, 4/16/2007 10:40:00 PM

Las Vegas -- In an effort to appease litigious video-content owners, Google is within months of deploying software that will automate the removal of copyright-protected video uploaded onto YouTube for viewing by millions with high-speed-data connections, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said Monday at the National Association of Broadcasters convention here.

"We're very close to turning this on. We're testing it with two or three of our partners," Schmidt added.

The major TV networks and their affiliates have been watching anxiously as millions of consumers use YouTube to view clips taken from popular shows that have appeared on ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox, as well as dozens of cable networks.

YouTube -- the hugely popular video-sharing site purchased by Google for $1.65 billion -- has been forced to remove thousands of clips as mandated by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 after being notified about copyright infringement. In March, Viacom sued Google and YouTube for $1 billion in a case that alleged intentional infringement by the search-engine giant.

Google's new software, Schmidt said in general terms, would inventory copyrighted content titles registered by owners. The software would constantly search the YouTube site for infringing material and automatically purge illegal copies.

"A manual process is going to take forever," Schmidt said. "We're in the process of developing tools which are called CYC, claim your content, where people essentially tell us this is a licensed copy. Our computers will automatically detect that an illegal copy has been uploaded and it will be automatically deleted."

Schmidt said the company was a few months away from full implementation, at which time YouTube's copyright woes should become a thing of the past.

"At that point, [copyright infringement] becomes a moot issue," he added.