YouTube a Month Away from Video Fingerprinting Tests

YouTube is a month away from testing video fingerprinting to proactively detect uploads of copyrighted content, according to the Wall Street Journal and Reuters.

Content owners such as Time Warner and Disney will participate in lab testing of the long-awaited product, which is being developed internally after dissatisfaction with third-party offerings, says the WSJ. The program is not expected to go live to the public until this fall.

The leading third-party provider of video fingerprinting, Audible Magic, had not done particularly well in NewTeeVee’s testing of it on various sites last week. YouTube uses Audible Magic’s more established audio recognition tool to filter videos with copyrighted music, much of which YouTube licenses from labels in exchange for ad-revenue share.

From the sounds of it, YouTube will be more proactively filtering than many had thought, automating filtering rather than waiting for copyright holders to “claim [their] content.”

Maxcy said that YouTube uses audio fingerprinting to automatically block a clip from ever appearing on the site when a user tries to upload one that contains music the partner copyright holders don’t want to appear…YouTube Product Manager David King said that it also intends to use video fingerprinting to automate the filtering or licensing of video clips.