Video Filtering to Get Standards
Motion Picture Association evaluates copyright protection tools.
April 6, 2007
By Alexandra Berzon
Judgment day, of sorts, is near for video filtering
The Motion Picture Association of America is rolling out a report within a few weeks that evaluates video-filtering software and establishes standards for copyright protection online. This sounds like good news for a nascent software space, but it also opens the door to a new set of tricky problems, insiders say.
“Once this evaluation ends, the negotiations begin,” said Brian Dunn, senior vice president for business development at the Paris-based Advestigo, which submitted technology to MPAA testing.
Why? User-generated sites like YouTube have become breeding grounds for copyrighted videos, provoking the ire (and legal arm) of copyright holders. That’s created an opening for entrepreneurs looking to cash in with tools designed to automatically catch illegal content before it appears online.
Video-sharing sites say they’re not required by law to implement filtering. But many now are choosing to do so in order to make deals with media companies. Viacom’s recent copyright lawsuit against YouTube has only added momentum.
Meanwhile, the filtering software space is chaotic. Only one company’s software―the Los Gatos, California-based Audible Magic―is widely used, and even that offers only audio soundtrack filtering so far.
Broken System
Enter the MPAA, the trade organization for film studios that has been generally aggressive on the spread of illegal videos online.
In September, it asked filtering companies to submit their tools for testing. The trade organization was seeking technology that can take a piece of video and create a unique fingerprint based on the video’s content. That fingerprint is used to accurately match and identify similar content even when the video has been severely altered, re-edited- and re-coded.
Twelve filtering software companies responded to the inquiry, and so far they have all more or less stood up to the scrutiny, MPAA officials say.
“Highly viable technologies will come out of this,” said Dean Garfield, MPAA’s legal director, who wants peer-to-peer networks, Internet service providers, and video-sharing sites to access the tools.
Video site executives agreed the standards could help in mending and building their relationships with studios.
No Panacea
But it won’t solve all the problems in this still-developing area, they say.
“The system is highly broken,” said Aaron Cohen, CEO of video-sharing site Bolt Media, recently acquired by the publicly traded GoFish. The merged company licensed filtering tools from Audible Magic after Bolt settled a copyright suit with Universal Music Group.
And the question of who will support the companies scrambling to get in on filtering is less clear.
Advestigo’s Mr. Dunn is concerned that YouTube will develop filtering tools in-house. Then a huge chunk of his potential market will vanish.
By Alexandra Berzon
Judgment day, of sorts, is near for video filtering
The Motion Picture Association of America is rolling out a report within a few weeks that evaluates video-filtering software and establishes standards for copyright protection online. This sounds like good news for a nascent software space, but it also opens the door to a new set of tricky problems, insiders say.
“Once this evaluation ends, the negotiations begin,” said Brian Dunn, senior vice president for business development at the Paris-based Advestigo, which submitted technology to MPAA testing.
Why? User-generated sites like YouTube have become breeding grounds for copyrighted videos, provoking the ire (and legal arm) of copyright holders. That’s created an opening for entrepreneurs looking to cash in with tools designed to automatically catch illegal content before it appears online.
Video-sharing sites say they’re not required by law to implement filtering. But many now are choosing to do so in order to make deals with media companies. Viacom’s recent copyright lawsuit against YouTube has only added momentum.
Meanwhile, the filtering software space is chaotic. Only one company’s software―the Los Gatos, California-based Audible Magic―is widely used, and even that offers only audio soundtrack filtering so far.
Broken System
Enter the MPAA, the trade organization for film studios that has been generally aggressive on the spread of illegal videos online.
In September, it asked filtering companies to submit their tools for testing. The trade organization was seeking technology that can take a piece of video and create a unique fingerprint based on the video’s content. That fingerprint is used to accurately match and identify similar content even when the video has been severely altered, re-edited- and re-coded.
Twelve filtering software companies responded to the inquiry, and so far they have all more or less stood up to the scrutiny, MPAA officials say.
“Highly viable technologies will come out of this,” said Dean Garfield, MPAA’s legal director, who wants peer-to-peer networks, Internet service providers, and video-sharing sites to access the tools.
Video site executives agreed the standards could help in mending and building their relationships with studios.
No Panacea
But it won’t solve all the problems in this still-developing area, they say.
“The system is highly broken,” said Aaron Cohen, CEO of video-sharing site Bolt Media, recently acquired by the publicly traded GoFish. The merged company licensed filtering tools from Audible Magic after Bolt settled a copyright suit with Universal Music Group.
And the question of who will support the companies scrambling to get in on filtering is less clear.
Advestigo’s Mr. Dunn is concerned that YouTube will develop filtering tools in-house. Then a huge chunk of his potential market will vanish.
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