BEIJING, July 30 (Xinhuanet) -- YouTube,
owned by Google Inc., will use technology to recognize copyright-infringing
videos on its site by this fall, according to a lawyer for the popular Web site
Sunday.
The lawyer, Philip S. Beck, told U.S. District Judge
Louis L. Stanton in Manhattan that YouTube was working "very intensely and
cooperating" with major content companies on video recognition technology as
sophisticated as the fingerprint technology used by the F.B.I.
Beck said the video recognition technology would
allow owners of videos to provide a digital fingerprint so that if anyone tried
to share a video that infringed copyrights, the system would remove it within a
minute or so.
The Viacom, the music publisher Bourne and the Premier
League, England's top soccer league, have filed lawsuits against
YouTube that were combined for trial purposes before Judge Stanton.
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.
YouTube said in response to the lawsuits that it goes
beyond what is required under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which gives
Web hosts protection from copyright lawsuits as long as they comply with
requests to remove unauthorized material.
YouTube said it cooperates with holders of copyrights
and immediately complies with requests to remove unauthorized material.
(Agencies)
