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Court orders YouTube to give Viacom video logs

Autor admin | 05.07.2008 | Category Internet News, YouTube

NEW YORK - Dismissing privacy concerns, a federal judge overseeing a $1 billion copyright-infringement lawsuit against YouTube has ordered the popular online video-sharing service to disclose who watches which video clips and when.

YouTube’s filtering issues still not moot

Autor admin | 18.04.2008 | Category Media News, YouTube

LAS VEGAS–A year ago Wednesday, Google CEO Eric Schmidt delighted an audience of TV and radio broadcasters when he promised to roll out a system that would mean the end of piracy at YouTube.

"We are in the process of developing tools which are called ‘Claim Your Content,’" Schmidt said at the National Association of Broadcasters 2007 conference. "If people tell us this is a licensed copy, our computers will automatically detect that an illegal copy has been uploaded and then automatically delete it."

Schmidt went on to say YouTube was "close to turning this (system) on" and once that happened, copyright violation at the site "becomes a moot issue." But following through on that promise has proven a challenge.

Executives with two entertainment companies that provide YouTube with feedback on its Video Identification system said the company’s filtering technology has fared well at times but is nowhere near perfect and overall test results are "inconclusive." The sources, who requested anonymity because of the ongoing relationship with YouTube, added that managers at the video-sharing site continue to try and refine the system.

YouTube defended its efforts to protect copyright.

"Since launching in October, our Video Identification system has shown terrific results in its comprehensiveness, accuracy, and scalability," a YouTube spokeswoman said in an e-mail. "Over 100 partners from independent content creators to large media companies are currently using Video ID to easily manage their content. Many have found it to be a helpful tool in generating revenue and exposure for their content in the world’s largest online video community."

For a long time, numerous copyright owners accused YouTube and Google of profiting from piracy and deliberately dragging their feet in developing a way to cleanse the site. They argued that the availability of professionally created content–uploaded by users–is what draws people to YouTube and without that the site would lose much of its luster. YouTube has always denied the accusations.

Nonetheless, the controversy has damaged some of Google’s relationships in Hollywood.

Viacom, parent company of MTV and Paramount Pictures, filed a $1 billion lawsuit against Google last year. That case is expected to last years before being resolved and it could help decide what, if anything, a Web site’s responsibilities are when it comes to policing for copyright violations.

Copyright clips abound
Certainly at this point, it’s hard to see much change at YouTube since launching Video ID.

Available on the site are literally countless clips from feature films and TV shows produced by small production companies as well as the largest entertainment conglomerates–including Viacom.

Key into YouTube’s search field the names of the last five Academy Award winners in the best picture category and scenes from each will appear. Want to watch the first 10 minutes of the gangster flick, The Departed? They’re there. Someone else posted a series of 12 separate scenes from the film, presumably to get around YouTube’s 10-minute clip limit.

Fans of Clint Eastwood’s Million Dollar Baby can watch the "Mo cuishle" episode on YouTube as well as the coin toss scene from last year’s best picture winner No Country For Old Men.

Identifying video is not easy, YouTube execs have long said. About 10 hours of video is uploaded to the site every minute. In addition to policing an enormous volume of video, YouTube must first obtain high-quality copies so it can create a digital fingerprint of the film or show. Ideally, the automated system will recognize when someone uploads an unauthorized copy.

While copyright videos are still plentiful on YouTube, there are seemingly fewer complaints from Hollywood. The sources who are part of YouTube’s testing say the entertainment industry has shown a willingness to give YouTube time to improve filtering.

Some content owners may have also concluded that some degree of piracy is inevitable.

"We still see our content pop up on YouTube," CNN.com Executive Producer Sandy Malcolm told the Associated Press this week. "You deal with it. You try to work with them on rights and things, but I don’t think you can completely stop it. You just try to beat the tide and try to get your content out as fast as you can."

Google execs continue to say they respect copyright and are working to protect it. Schmidt said protecting copyright was in Google’s best interest.

"We are critically dependent upon the production of copyright content," Schmidt told the NAB audience a year ago. "Literally, people come to Google to get to somewhere where there is something of value. It’s very important that we not violate copyright."

News.com

Indonesia restores access to YouTube Web site

Autor admin | 11.04.2008 | Category Internet News, YouTube

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia’s Internet service providers have restored access to YouTube and other Web sites that carried a Dutch lawmaker’s film that accuses the Koran of inciting violence, an industry official said on Friday.

Isnawan, vice chairman of the Indonesian Internet Providers Association, said service providers would only block access to pages carrying the film by Geert Wilders, leader of the Dutch anti-immigration Freedom Party, which alternates images of the September 11, 2001 attacks and other Islamist bombings with quotations from the Koran.

The move followed protests by web users who said they were disadvantaged by the banning of several sites including YouTube, Multiply and My Space.

"We don’t need to block the sites but only links that broadcast the film. If the film is moved to another site, we will keep on chasing and block it," Isnawan said.

The Web sites were fully blocked on Monday and Tuesday.

Titled "Fitna," a Koranic term sometimes translated as "strife," the film also shows an image of the Prophet Mohammad primed to explode and says the rising number of Muslims in Europe threatens democratic values.

Wilders’ film urges Muslims to tear out "hate-filled" verses from the Koran and starts and ends with a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammad with a bomb under his turban, accompanied by a ticking sound.

The film has sparked protests in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation and a former Dutch colony.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has urged his predominantly Muslim nation not to use violence in protests against the film.

The Dutch government has distanced itself from Wilders’ views, and the Dutch upper house of parliament has condemned what it called efforts to denigrate Islam and promote hatred.

(Reporting by Mita Valina Liem, Editing by Sugita Katayal and Bill Tarrant)

Yahoo!

YouTube to provide more viewership info

Autor admin | 27.03.2008 | Category Internet News, YouTube

NEW YORK - The popular video-sharing site YouTube is giving contributors more details about who’s watching their video clips and when, offering advertisers additional insights they can use to target their pitches.

The free program, known as YouTube Insight, also could help bands schedule their concerts and help anyone time the release of a new video.

The launch of Insight on Thursday comes as Google Inc. looks for ways to make money off its $1.76 billion purchase of YouTube in 2006. Despite growing interest in online video ads, many marketers have stayed away from user-generated video like what’s on YouTube.

Marketers who buy ads on YouTube already get a bevy of statistics about the performance of their ads. The new program breaks down viewership by day and shows the states or countries where most viewers are.

A movie studio that uploads a trailer for free on YouTube could use those details to see where the clip is most popular and perhaps buy ads targeted to users in that region — on YouTube and even on television.

But everyday contributors also can benefit from the new program, said Tracy Chan, a YouTube program manager. Until now, those users got limited information, such as how many times their video was viewed or commented on.

The new tools "give a lot of context around the performance of video over time, where are your audience coming from and how your message is connecting to your audience," Chan said.

A band could use that information to plan stops on a tour, while video producers who find their viewership peaks on Wednesdays could release new clips then. Likewise, producers who see their shows peaking after three weeks would know to release a new episode every three weeks, and someone whose material turns out to be popular in Spain might want to release the next video in Spanish.

"With this information, you can concentrate on creating compelling new content that appeals to your target audiences and post these videos on days you know these viewers are on the site," YouTube officials said in a blog entry announcing the program.

Upcoming features may indicate how viewers find a video, through a search, an outside link or YouTube’s share-with-a-friend feature, Chan said.

The new viewership breakdowns, like the current ones, will count on the number of times users start a video but not necessarily how many finish it. Geographic information is based on viewers’ numeric Internet Protocol address, the same mechanism Google uses to target ads by region.

Some data will still be limited to paid advertisers, including information on how many viewers make it through 25 percent, 50 percent or all of a video.

On the Net: http://youtube.com