Google said it will begin testing advanced video identifying technology that can prevent clips of copyrighted material from being illegally uploaded to YouTube. The technology, called video fingerprinting, would initially be tested with a group of partners, including Disney and Time Warner, but will be available to other copyright owners by the end of the year.
These tools will be used to identify copyrighted material, after which media companies can decide if they would like to remove the material or keep it up, as part of a revenue-sharing deal with YouTube, which can sell advertising alongside it.
Besides the video identification technology, Google also said to be testing a technology provided by privately held Audible Magic to help identify the audio tracks used in the uploaded video clips, in response to threats from major record labels. Google hopes these new technologies will please content owners who have complained about the proliferation of their copyrighted clips, claiming that YouTube does not do enough to prevent such clips from being uploaded to the website. But most importantly, it could lead the popular video website to strike more content deals to further attract traffic and revenue.