Justin.tv has just announced a new copyright protection process it is initiating. The site is working with Vobile to filter content on Justin.tv using their database of content.
The Associated Press has announced it is taking measures to protect its online content with a creation of a news registry to tag and track all AP content "to assure compliance with terms of use."
The AP says the system will register key information about each piece of content it distributes as well as terms of use of that content, and feature a built-in beacon to alert the AP about how the content is used.
Because copyright and trademark lawyers have had such itchy trigger fingers when it comes to issuing DMCA takedown notices, there’s a lot of confusion out there what exactly constitutes infringement, and what webmasters can and can’t do with intellectual property.
Part of the problem is that websites hosting other people’s content—YouTube, Blogger, eBay, etc.—remove the content at the slightest whiff of a DMCA notice to avoid trouble. This leads, of course, to abuse and to targets without any great recourse.
The specious arguments made and overly harsh penalties sought by the copyright (Big Media) industry would be comically absurd if systemic corruption didn’t immediately transform them into tragedies.
One thing’s for sure, Google doesn’t want to be associated with pirates; the company has enough copyright troubles as it is in its battles with Viacom and the AP. But defenders of The Pirate Bay argue there is precious little difference between two engines both capable of retrieving existing .torrent files on the Internet.
Well, if Google (or any number of other cost-conscious corporations) isn’t going to do something about overreaching copyright enforcement, it may be up to nonprofits and legal scholars at our best law schools. First up, a pair of acronyms, next Congress for encouraging them.
If you happen to come across some silent YouTube videos today, there's no need to start investigating your speaker settings and browser defaults. It seems that the "problem" is on YouTube's end; the site's owners have chosen to mute certain clips as a way of dealing with copyright violations.
Late last week MySpace responded to notices from the RIAA by banning all ProjectPlaylist widgets from its site. Yesterday Facebook followed suit.
MTV, which recently made a super smart and exciting YouTube-combating move by making its music video collection available online, just ruined it. They’ve censored Weird Al.
Though initially critical of the McCain campaign’s request for special treatment, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has echoed parts of a letter to YouTube by calling for immediate fair use review of videos uploaded to the site upon the receipt of a counter-notice to a DMCA takedown notice.