MySpace offers tools to block unauthorised videos

By Kenneth Li

NEW YORK (Reuters) - News Corp.'s online social network MySpace said on Monday it is offering free software tools to let media companies block the uploading of unauthorized video clips, expanding on an earlier program to block unauthorised music.

MySpace, one of the Internet's most popular services, has licensed audio fingerprinting technology developed by Los Gatos, California-based Audible Magic, which helps identify the digital audio signature in a video file. Videos whose audio tracks match those in its database will be blocked, the company said.

MySpace said it maintains a database of fingerprints uploaded by content owners. The blocking of unauthorized clips is on a voluntary basis to prevent the exclusion of materials that companies want to be uploaded, such as those by a company's marketing department.

"Video filtering is about protecting artists and the work they create," Chris DeWolfe, CEO and co-founder of MySpace, said in a statement.

The move comes a week after Viacom ordered the removal of more than 100,000 clips from top online video service YouTube and criticized the Google-owned service for dragging its heels to offer reliable ways to block unauthorized clips of top shows, including comedian Jon Stewart's "Daily Show."

For media companies, protecting copyrights while letting their programming proliferate across the Internet as a free marketing tool has been a difficult balancing act that has balkanized the media industry. Privately, some of Google's partners, which include most of the music labels, say they are holding out hope the company will be able to solve the issue.

Nowhere is that issue more apparent than News Corp., which owns the 20th Century Fox movie and television studios and the Fox television network. The company subpoenaed YouTube in January to learn the identities of users who had uploaded episodes of hit show "24" ahead of its TV broadcast and episodes of "The Simpsons."

MySpace said it was already helping companies block the uploading of unauthorized audio files such as songs and this was an expansion into video. It also said it has been blocking both audio and video files owned by Vivendi's Universal Music Group through this system.