YouTube protects copyright with filtering tools

Google’s video-sharing site, YouTube, has launched filtering tools to help prevent unauthorised video-sharing.

The ‘Video Identification’ tools are designed to stop copyrighted material from appearing and spreading on the site.

Copyright is a major concern for YouTube, which is currently in a potentially expensive legal dispute with Viacom over the distribution of pirated files on the site.

Currently, YouTube removes copyrighted works from the site, as soon as it becomes aware of their presence.

The new tools will allow copyright owners to leave their video on the service if they wish, and to sell advertising around the content.

The copyright protection technology has been in development for six months and is still being tested.

However, early tests with content companies have produced promising results.