MySpace: Get Out And Stay Out

From now on, when copyright owners complain to MySpace, they will be heard. At least that’s the plan MySpace and partner Audible Magic announced today.

MySpace, a Fox Interactive company, launched Take Down Stay Down, a feature that prevents users from re-posting video content in the MySpace community after that content has been removed at the request of the copyright owner, according to a statement.

When a content owner informs MySpace that a user has improperly posted its content onto MySpace Videos, MySpace said it will create a digital fingerprint of the video content and add it to its copyright filter, which is based on Audible Magic technology.

That way, if any user later attempts to upload the same content, the filter will recognize the digital fingerprint and block the content from being uploaded.

It’s the kind of technology solution an entire industry has been holding its breath for.

When Google bought video-sharing site YouTube.com last fall for $1.65 billion, it got more than a popular site video site. It also got legal trouble. Many of the videos that make YouTube so popular are illegally uploaded.

Owners of that copyrighted content have begun to sue Google. Robert Tur, a Los Angeles-based journalist, sued YouTube for allowing users to post his copyrighted footage. Viacom, one of the world’s largest content owners, sued Google for $1 billion in March.

“YouTube is a significant, for-profit organization that has built a lucrative business out of exploiting the devotion of fans to others’ creative works in order to enrich itself and its corporate parent Google. Therefore, we must turn to the courts,” Viacom said at the time.

Viacom’s claim was that Google has proactively avoided developing technology that could identify copyrighted content and thus block users from uploading it to YouTube.

Funny thing is, Google is also developing copyright fingerprinting technology with the help of Audible Magic, sources familiar with the matter told internetnews.com.

That information isn’t public, however, most likely because Google is still working its way through lawsuits and licensing negotiations.
It’s not surprising that Fox would be more upfront with the use of such technology, because after all, its parent-company News Corp. is one of the world’s largest content owners.

Even today, Web video site Broadcaster.com made news for rejecting a cease-and-desist letter from 20th Century Fox over alleged copyright infringement.

Audible Magic President and CEO Vance Ikezoye told internetnews.com his company is also working with Microsoft and its video-sharing site Soapbox.