MySpace technology stays in tune with the law

Stan Beer
Wednesday, 01 November 2006 09:28

Your IT - Home IT

Social networking site MySpace is using technology and threats to ban members in an attempt to keep its site clean of unauthorized copyright protected material. The News Corp owned site's move prompts questions as to whether Google's YouTube will be forced to implement similar methods to stave off potential copyright infringement suits.

The proactive move by MySpace involves the use of audio fingerprinting technology, which compares music uploads with millions of audio waveforms in a music database owned by a company called Gracenote.

Uploads of unauthorized music and video content has presented a growing problem for popular highly trafficked sites like MySpace and YouTube. While some copyright holders are happy to form partnerships with both sites in order to increase their exposure, others, including some recording companies have objected and threatened to sue for unauthorized use of their copyrighted content.

While MySpace has signalled its intention to tackle the issue of publishing unauthorized content proactively using technology, YouTube to date has been fairly relaxed about the video content being posted to its site.

While YouTube, recently acquired by Google for US$1.65 billion, removes material that breaches copyright if it receives a complaint from the copyright holder, it has yet to implement a proactive filtering system.