DailyTech - JASRAC Asks YouTube to Check Video Copyrights

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Internet JASRAC Asks YouTube to Check Video Copyrights
Michael Hoffman (Blog) - December 6, 2006 4:00 PM

5 comment(s) - last by marvdmartian.. on Dec 7 at 9:05 AM

A Japanese music copyright organization has asked YouTube to do a better job of checking video copyrights posted on the popular video sharing site

The Japan Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers has said that popular online video sharing site YouTube should proactively check if uploaded videos are copyrighted. The Japanese entertainment group was the one that requested YouTube take down 30,000 video clips that infringed on copyright.

YouTube was also asked to put in filters and take other steps to stop unauthorized content from being shared. The group also requests that users register their personal details and face being banned if they violate copyright laws. In the letter sent to YouTube on Monday, JSRACP claims YouTube is still highly insufficient while trying to stop copyrighted videos from being posted.

Analysts have repeatedly claimed that YouTube is highly vulnerable to possible legal claims for distributing copyrighted content without proper authorization. Because more than 65,000 new videos are uploaded on YouTube every day, it would most likely be impossible for the company to please every demand by groups like the JASRAC, according to analysts. YouTube has until Dec. 15 to respond to the Japanese industry group's letter.

YouTube has been in the process of negotiating with copyright holders to allow copyrighted content to be shown in exchange for sharing advertising revenue with the original copyright holders.

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What can they do?

By Christopher1 on 12/6/2006 11:43:11 PM , Rating: 2

What in all reality can Youtube or any other online video uploading service do to keep copyrighted work off their site?

Answer: Not much.

They don't have the resources to research every show to see if it is copyrighted somewhere in the world. They just have to wait for them to be notified and then take the infringing work down, as the DMCA says they have to do in order to be held guiltless.

RE: What can they do?

By SunAngel on 12/7/2006 12:22:40 AM , Rating: 2

You must be catnapping. Images and sound can now be scanned just like scanning text for inappropriate words. I don't know the particulars of cost for doing such. All I know is it can be done. Seems to me it would be a time consuming process considering the huge amount of content YouTube houses. But, they have to do it or perish like the rest.

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RE: What can they do?

By peternelson on 12/7/2006 3:08:38 AM , Rating: 2

Yes it can be done.

There are digital watermarking technologies. There are programs which can transcribe the notes of a song from the music for comparison. And I personally worked on a hardware and software system that watched and recorded thousands of TV advertising commercials from all channels in many countries 24x7, and recognised the ones which were the same as those in the database.

OCR of still frames is also possible for text or subtitle content.

I agree that users should be banned if they repeatedly infringe.

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RE: What can they do?

By marvdmartian on 12/7/2006 9:05:42 AM , Rating: 2

Any watermarking (or other identifying technology) that can be put on a video, can be taken off, if the person wants it off badly enough. All that's going to do is stop the average joe-schmoe user.
As far as banning goes, is it really that hard for a person to go to yahoo, sign up for a bogus e-mail account, then use that account to sign up for another account at youtube, probably within 15 minutes of being banned? Unless they have a static IP address, and you ban that one IP address from joining, you're just going to be spitting into the wind.
Their best defense is to remind all users, when they first sign up, and again every time they post content, that they're not allowed to post copyrighted material....then remove any material identified as copyrighted when requested. By doing that, they're 100% compliant with the letter of the law, if not the intent.

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