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YouTube copyright filter nearly ready: Google 
Tuesday, April 17 2007
by Charlie Taylor


Google is very near enacting a filtering service that would
prevent copyright content from being uploaded to
video-sharing site YouTube, according to CEO Eric Schmidt.



Schmidt made the comments to about 300 people at the National
Association of Broadcasters conference in Las Vegas during a
one-on-one interview with John Seigenthaler, the former
reporter with NBC's Nightly News.



The new system, which he called Claim Your Content, will
automatically identify copyright material so it can be
removed. "We are very close to turning this on," Schmidt
said.



The filtering system was supposed to have launched last year
at YouTube, which Google acquired for USD1.6 billion in
October 2006. Delays in rolling it out have caused
consternation among film and TV executives. Executives at NBC
and Viacom have accused Google of dragging its feet on
preventing YouTube users from uploading clips from hit shows
and movies.



Network executives accused Google of stalling so YouTube
could reap the big traffic that professionally created shows
generate. Viacom filed a USD1 billion lawsuit against Google
last month and accused Google of massive intentional
copyright infringement.



Of Viacom, Schmidt said: "You're either doing business with
them or being sued by them... we chose the former but ended
up the latter."



Schmidt took the opportunity to poke fun at Microsoft's
assertion that Google's pending acquisition of DoubleClick
may be a threat to fair competition. Other companies,
including AT&T and Yahoo, have also asked regulators to
review the transaction closely.



When NBC's Seigenthaler pointed out that Microsoft has
expressed concern about Google's size and the safety of
privacy on the web, Schmidt said: "The specific complaints
Microsoft has made are clearly false. I think a more likely
scenario is that they are making those arguments because they
are a competitor of ours."



Earlier Seigenthaler noted many in the crowd were in radio
and television and many may fear Google has its sites set on
their advertising market.



Google said recently that it will begin selling
advertisements on all of the radio stations owned by Clear
Channel Communications, the US' largest station owner.



Google has been working to extend its reach into traditional
media ad sales but Schmidt denied it is a threat to radio, TV
or newspapers. He noted that ad revenues for TV and radio
have been relatively flat and implored the audience to
realise that they need to bring in new advertisers. His
message of course is that Google can help them do that.



He said: "Google is new phenomenon that isn't going to
replace radio or TV. It seems to me that Google has an ad
business that can add to the success of radio and TV."



Greg Sandoval writes for CNET News.com

Reprinted with permission from href="http://www.silicon.com">Silicon.com