Websites that allow users to upload content have always
struggled with the copyright implications. MTV owner Viacom is
engaged in a $1 billion legal battle with YouTube over its claim
that the Google-owned video site profits from the infringements of
copyright involved in users' uploading of videos without copyright
holders' permission.
MySpace, though, has now signed a deal with MTV that will mean
that any user-uploaded clips of its shows will be allowed to stay
online. They will be identified by software developed by Auditude
and will have adverts screened within them, the three companies
said.
"Auditude is opening the floodgates for users to program video
on MySpace and ensure copyright holders get paid,” said Jeff
Berman, president of marketing and sales for MySpace. “Auditude and
its partners are empowering consumers and building a better
business model."
Auditude said that it had technology that could automatically
identify posted videos as long as that video had been indexed by
its system. It said that it had indexed 250 million videos, or over
a billion minutes of material.
"We embrace the fact that online video is fundamentally social
and created the identification technology and advertising platform
to include the power of audience syndication – fans uploading
content to the web – as a form of content distribution," said Adam
Cahan, Auditude chief executive. "Our partnership with MySpace
allows us to help content owners, like MTV Networks, reach their
fans where they are most active. We hope to grow the market for
monetizing online video by simplifying ad targeting and providing
scale through audience participation."
"We give our fans the power not only to consume our content, but
also to share and interact with it across the Web,” said Mika
Salmi, president of global digital media at MTV Networks. “With
Auditude’s solution, we can continue to give users the freedom to
take our content wherever they go online, while ensuring that we
can monetize it as well.”
Auditude's technology inserts what the company calls an
'attribution overlay', which identifies the content and relays
messages created by the owner of the intellectual property in that
content.
It can relay an offer for the view to buy the programme they are
watching, or to buy merchandise related to it. An ad will be shown
in addition to the material in the 'attribution overlay' layer.
MySpace, in common with other sites that allow users to post
video material, will take videos down when asked to by copyright
holders. Copyright holding companies have argued, though, that this
places to great a burden on copyright holders.
Viacom, which owns television stations including MTV, Comedy
Central and Nickelodeon, argues in its YouTube suit that the video
site could do more to prevent material which it owns to be shared
online.
YouTube claims that it is protected by US copyright law, which
it says shields it from liability if it acts swiftly to take
material down once informed about it.
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