YouTube Model Is Compromise Over Copyrights
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Video-sharing site YouTube Inc., in a move that could defuse the threat of legal action against it, is racing to overhaul the way media and entertainment companies view unlicensed online use of their content. YouTube is rolling out technology designed to automatically spot copyrighted material that users upload without the permission of media companies, and then to share ad revenue with those companies. Consumers go to YouTube to watch videos ranging from music videos to footage of a napping cat more than 100 million times a day and submit more than 65,000 videos a day. YouTube’s new system, announced yesterday and set for release in the next few months, is an ambitious effort to give media companies more control over the video on the site and to address their fears that others will profit from consumers’ piracy of their content. The first entertainment company to embrace the system is Warner Music Group. The two companies have agreed that Warner Music will post its catalog of music videos on YouTube and collect an unspecified percentage of the revenue from advertising appearing alongside them. The deal doesn’t cover live performances captured on video cameras or other devices, because Warner doesn’t own the copyrights to those recordings. In addition, the new system will give YouTube users a legitimate way to create videos with soundtracks that use music from Warner artists. (Videos of amateurs’ lip syncing or juggling to popular songs are among the most viewed on video-sharing sites.) YouTube’s system will identify such videos and give Warner a share of the revenue for any ads that appear alongside these videos, if Warner opts for that rather than having the videos removed. For YouTube, a closely held San Mateo, Calif., company, the new system offers the chance to bring revenue, users and a legitimacy to content that, in many cases, probably would otherwise infringe on copyrights. Consumers get free, legal use of Warner music for their videos — although there wasn’t much standing in their way before. Warner gets ad revenue it wasn’t otherwise receiving. More : online.wsj.com |