YouTube to Use Copyright Checker for Uploaded Videos

The popular website YouTube will use technology to stop copyright infringement for videos uploaded on its site.

The lawyer of YouTube told U.S. District Judge in Manhattan that YouTube was working “very intensely and cooperating” with major content providers on video recognition technology as sophisticated as the fingerprint technology of F.B.I.

He said the technology would allow owners of videos to provide a digital fingerprint in order to activate the system to remove the videos that infringed copyrights. This is to eliminate any dispute in the future.

England’s Football Association Premier League Ltd, Viacom and the music publisher Bourne, have filed lawsuits against YouTube that were combined for trial purposes. The Viacom sought one billion U.S. dollars in damages for what it said was the unauthorized viewing of its programming from MTV, Comedy Central and other networks, such as “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart.” In their lawsuits, Bourne and the Premier Leagure sought unspecified damages and any profits YouTube had made as a result of the sharing of copyrighted videos. Lawyers for plaintiffs in the two lawsuits said they welcomed any improvement that would end alleged infringement of their copyrights.

Digital Millennium Copyright Act gives Web hosts protection from copyright lawsuits as long as they comply with requests to remove unauthorized material. However, the new technology soon to be implemented by YouTube is beyond what is required under the Act. YouTube said it cooperates with holders of copyrights and immediately complies with requests to remove unauthorized material.

YouTube, owned by Google Inc. planned to have the technology in place in September.