Ignorance Economy

Video Copyright Protection on the Web: An Old Media Pipe Dream

by Jeff Molander

Big media (i.e. Viacom) is pissed and Google is in the cross-hairs. Why? Use of their copyrighted material on sites like YouTube for sure but there’s more.

Google is trying to appease entertainment Goliaths by

1. Telling them “we’ll catch the copyright violators using our site with our slick technology” and alert you
2. Cutting them in on future ad revenues… cash generated by video ad models (YouTube)

These advertising models have yet to be figured out (let alone proven). Waiting around for Google to figure it out and start cutting checks isn’t “adding shareholder value” if ya know what I mean.

News Corp’s Peter Chernin recently proclaimed that its MySpace could also begin to help solve the copyright problem — the same one Google seems reluctant to enter into. Hu? What? Yes, now both are promising they will police the MySpace and YouTube’s of the world… although Chernin clearly dares Google to jump first as he taunts them:

“YouTube could do a much more aggressive job about taking down content that is a copyright violator. It’s pretty safe to say that they [Google] have the technology available… it’s publicly available and I haven’t yet heard a lot about Google being technologically constrained.”

Is there anything behind Google and News Corp’s posturing on who’s imaginary copyright protection technology is better? Yes and here it is, fair reader.  It’s called a tapdance to STALL, buy time and experiment.

As pointed out by my respected colleague, Amanda Watlington…

Isn’t this ‘my copyright detection beats your copyright detection’ just more of ‘my algo is better than your algo’ that we’ve known for years? Not quite. In an article entitled “The Cost of Copyright” Danny Bradbury discusses copyright detection technology, why the various parties do not seem willing to develop and adopt a single detection methodology which would yield a recognizable digital fingerprint for copyright materials. He points out that it’s about the advertising Benjamins ($$) that await the advertising network that can provide pinpoint targeting based on viewing patterns. Fingerprinting on video has the promise of delivering lots of potential revenue-producing information on viewing patterns. This information will become ever more valuable as advertisers seek to hone in on their prospects. “

In short, it’s all about the money and so long as Google AND digital-savvy big media can get away with stalling they will.

Google and News Corp aren’t out to protect copyrighted material — they’re out to convert it into cold cash.