MySpace Begins Rollout of Video Monitoring Tech

C|Net is carrying an article looking into new technology MySpace is rolling out to combat user violation of copyright laws on their pages. Called 'Take Down, Stay Down', the service will attempt to ensure that once content is removed because of a complaint it can never be uploaded again. "Copyright owners have access to Take Down Stay Down free of charge, according to a release from MySpace. If the social-networking service receives a takedown notice regarding a copyrighted clip hosted through its MySpace Videos hosting service, MySpace's new feature will take a 'digital fingerprint' of the video and add it to a copyright filter that blocks the content from being uploaded again. '(It's) the ability to have a piece of content imprinted and put in a database so we can identify it,' said Vance Ikezoye, CEO of Audible Magic." The article goes on to discuss the problems YouTube is facing with the same issues, as well as recent investigations of this issue in the political arena.

Comments

The search for the Holy Grail

[janrinok]

I would expect that, no matter what technology is used, a simple trivial change to the size of the file will negate the fingerprint technology employed. This appears to be another search for the Holy Grail that will probably be as unsuccessful as previous attempts.

Re:The search for the Holy Grail

[femto]

Why bother? Just use another website.

Every website has a finite time in the sun, and RupertSpace is no exception. There will even be a day (soon?) when people say "Now what was that website called, TheirSpace or something?"

Who remembers AltaVista? It was as big as Google and RupertSpace in its day. Everyone thought it was the ultimate answer and unassailable when it "indexed the whole Internet". As altavista faded so will RupertSpace (and even Google eventually) and their restrictions on users will be irrelevant.

Re:The search for the Holy Grail

[Tuoqui]

Well if they are using MD5 SHA1 or SHA256 hashes for their 'digital fingerprinting' like they do for Computer Forensics dealing with files and/or entire drives.

All you would need to do to defeat their 'digital fingerprinting technology' would be to change a single bit in a file to something else then the odds of getting the same hash would be astronomical.

So yeah, I'm thinking its something along the lines of a publicity stunt by Myspace to look like they are actually doing something. Also they are required to obey the DMCA too which indicates that if someone issues a counter DMCA claim that they have to permit the content to be restored somehow and/or taken off of this 'blacklist'.