copyright - Internet Marketing News and Blogs

Barely a day goes past without online commentators complaining about how the music industry is doomed because it doesn't 'get' the web.

Yet recent actions suggest this may be changing, which is more than can be said for the promoters of the national game.

Google is to launch a system in September designed to prevent copyrighted material from appearing on video sharing site YouTube, according to one of its lawyers.  

Philip Beck said Google would have a library of video 'fingerprints' that would be used to screen new material posted on YouTube, rather than waiting for copyright owners to alert the site's management.

With a view to halting the plethora of copyright cases and complaints brought against YouTube, Google will soon offer anti-piracy technology for copyright holders to prevent their content being shown on the site.

Google has been heavily criticised for seeming to be willing to take action over copyright infringement only when they have an existing content agreement with the content owners.

MySpace is experimenting with a content-filtering system in a bid to prevent the site's members from uploading videos containing copyrighted material.

News Corp's popular social network will use technology from Audible Magic, which examines the audio tracks of video clips to create a unique signature.

Viacom, the parent company of MTV and Comedy Central, has requested YouTube to remove 100,000 clips of its programming.

Viacom had been negotiating with Google over a deal that would allow the clips to be shown on YouTube in return for a share of ad revenues, but pulled out of talks after failing to reach an agreement.

Universal Music has launched a legal challenge against MySpace, the first time  Rupert Murdoch’s social network site has been challenged for copyright infringement.

Universal is suing MySpace for unauthorised use of the music and music videos of its artists, citing the availability on the site of material from Jay-Z’s as yet unreleased album as an example of this.

Michael Arrington at TechCrunch has been hit with a cease and desist order by lawyers acting on behalf on YouTube.

His 'crime' was to post an article advising readers how to download videos from YouTube to an iPod, or a computer’s hard drive. Arrington had checked YouTube’s terms of use before posting this, and found nothing in there to prevent this.

Or so they thought…

After paying $1.6bn for the world's favourite video sharing site this week, Google could be facing copyright problems over some of the site's video content, as content owners take advantage of the search engine giant's deeper pockets.

Media group Time Warner has indicated that it will be pursuing its copyright claims against YouTube with its new owners, and other companies may well choose to follow suit.