WebProNews

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.

"As of this week we've begun fingerprinting all saved clips on Justin.tv and scanning them against Vobile's content database," Justin.tv VP Marketing Evan Solomon tells WebProNews. "Channels with clips that are found to be infringing have their clips removed and the channel is taken offline."

While this only applies to archived clips at this point, in November, the site will begin expanding the fingerprinting system to all live video. "It's a big undertaking to scale this system up to cover all of our live video--Justin.tv users upload 24.3 hours of live video per minute," says Solomon.

The new filtering is an extension of a deal Justin.tv signed wit Fox to increase copyright protection for live video. The site already provides a takedown tool that lets copyright owners login to an admin interface and kill channels in real time.

"Other companies handle this by forcing content owners to email or submit a takedown form, which is processed manually," explains Solomon.  "When live content is in play, that method is useless because the event is usually over before a manual process can address it."

Fox and Net Result, which handles content monitoring for sports organizations like the NBA, Formula 1, Tour de France, Australian Open, and Manchester United FC to name a few, are both happy with Justin.tv's latest efforts with regards to copyright protection. 

Fox says: "Justin.tv has taken a leadership position among live streaming sites by entering into an agreement with Fox to work together on copyright protection for live streaming content. Justin.tv, with consultation from Fox, is implementing an innovative and industry-leading filtering solution designed to prevent copyrighted content from appearing on Justin.tv without authorization."

Net Result says: "NetResult is obviously extremely pleased to learn that Justin.tv has initiated additional steps to help rights owners protect their content in the online space.  In our experience, Justin.tv has been the most helpful of the user generated live streaming sites when it comes to promptly removing unauthorized streams.  Its DMCA take down tool allows us to remove any of our clients' content as soon as it is discovered, without waiting for a human response.  Hopefully other user generated live streaming sites will follow Justin.tv’s lead."

Justin.tv feels that content rights moderation has held back the entire online video industry. The company says it needs to get better before the industry can move forward and get live video integrated into every part of the web.