YouTube to host classic TV shows in deal with DMG

by Adam Turner

Monday, 12 February 2007

Classic television shows including I Spy and Gumby are amongst more than 4000 hours of video content to be made freely available on YouTube.

Copyright owner of the programs, Digital Music Group, will receive a slice of advertising revenues generated by the content, reports the Wall Street Journal.

The deal with DMG is one of the first revenue sharing agreements announced by YouTube, which eventually plans to offer a cut of advertising revenues to all users who post content. The plan increases pressure on YouTube to filter out illegally posted videos to ensure users don't profit from the work of others.

As part of the DMG deal, YouTube will use filters to block users from uploading videos containing songs for which DMG controls the rights.

The deal comes as Google-owned YouTube struggles to satisfy media groups demanding it pull down copyrighted material. Viacom recently demanded YouTube remove more than 100,000 video clips after the two firms failed to reach a distribution deal. YouTube will also post warnings in Japanese against uploading copyrighted materials after negotiations with a leading Japanese copyright lobby group.

Social networking MySpace is also trialling tools which block users from uploading copyrighted videos by checking the audio fingerprints of video clips.{moscomment}

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