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.