Buckley,B . "SueTube: Web 2.0 and Copyright Infringement" The Columbia journal of law & the arts [1544-4848]

The article extensively illustrates the development of Web 2.0 and the emergence of Youtube as one of the most popular websites on the internet. The author then summarizes Youtube’s liability protection under the Fair Harbor law. My interest in this article, however, stems from its discussion of the filtering software used by Youtube. “Youtube recently unveiled a video identification service which would create digital fingerprints of material that content providers wish to have protected.” If a video is uploaded to Youtube that matches the fingerprint of a copyrighted work, the owner can request that it be removed. Extensive tests have already been conducted: in one case, the system caught 18 instances of infringement after a service uploaded over 4400 hours of content to Youtube. After a copyright owner identifies infringing work, it can either have the material pulled or, even more incredibly, have its own advertisements added to the video. This technology is very appealing to Youtube because adopting it will show courts that it is doing all it can to remove copyrighted material. However, several factors make this protection unappealing. First, the “fingerprints” rely on a library of original content with which to match against infringing content. Thus, copyright owners will have to provide an extensive library of material to Youtube before being able to find their illegally uploaded material on Youtube. It is similarly unclear whether this technology will be able to identify slightly altered versions of original clips uploaded to the website. Fair Use advocates are equally concerned that the software will remove their own Fair Use works, mistaking them for infringing material.

This is an important article because it discusses Youtube as a company increasingly working for the Copyright holding companies rather than for its own users. Youtube is constantly in danger of copyright litigation: even the DMCA will not protect the company if plaintiffs can prove that Youtube is directly benefitting financially from copyrighted content. By signing deals with content owners that allow the owners to add advertisements to any of their content that was illegally uploaded, Youtube has cleverly created a way to profit from illegal content. Youtube also signed agreements with content owners to provide studio shows and clips on its services. This mitigates the temptation for users to upload illegal videos, especially if they can watch the legal version on the exact same website. However, by blindly implementing filtering software that automatically flags seemingly copyrighted material, Youtube may be dooming Fair Use works. Rather, Youtube should alter the filtering software so that it only flags videos that are either entirely made up of one video clip or contain a part of a copyrighted video with the corresponding audio from that clip playing as well. Many Fair Use artists will take the video but not the audio portion of a clip and mix it with other clips. Youtube can thus appease the studios and courts while still emphasizing the importance of its community of users, whom it built the website for in the first place.