Audio Video News

When last we checked on YouTube, the Google-owned site was having trouble keeping its promises to the entertainment industry. Users were illicitly posting copyrighted material and the legal bills mounted. By September, the YouTubers hope, all that will change.

An attorney defending YouTube in one of its many lawsuits has told a judge that the company is cooperating with content owners to implement a video recognition technology. Supposedly hot stuff, as sophisticated as FBI fingerprinting technology, it would spot copyrighted material in a New York minute and wipe it off the site.

The major copyright-infringement case currently being litigated involves Viacom--including popular clips from The Daily Show--and an English soccer league. Viacom is seeking $1 billion in damages. The company's attorneys said they'd welcome the use of filtering technology.

In the meantime, YouTube continues to respond to complaints by manually removing material from the site, saying this should be enough to shield it from penalties under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.