Don’t berate them, join them. That seems to be the growing consensus for media companies faced with having their copyrighted material posted illegally to YouTube, according to this story in the New York Times. While content owners have the option to force YouTube to remove pirated clips from the video-sharing site, many instead decide to leave the content but sell ads against it. The YouTube ad program that provides the option is now seeing 90% uptake from media companies, vs. just 10% that opt to remove the content entirely. It looks like Google/YouTube has finally hit on a solution that solves both of its major problems–pirated clips and monetization of the site.
The technology, called video ID, was introduced last fall by YouTube, under pressure from the media companies. And now, almost a year later, several media companies say the tool works well and is a good solution. Film company Lionsgate is a backer, as is Universal Music Group. And video game company Electronic Arts has actually encouraged users to upload copyrighted material and share the ad revenue from them. (For the most part, however, the YouTubers who upload the pirated content don’t share in the ad revenue. That’s split between YouTube and the content owners.)
What’s surprising is that media giant CBS is also pursuing the ad path when it comes to copyrighted content on YouTube. CBS is a sister company of Viacom, which is currently embroiled in a messy lawsuit with YouTube over pirated content. Even Viacom says the solution works and that is pleased to see YouTube “stepping up to its responsibility and ending the practice of profiting from copyright infringement.” It said it’s not backing away from the suit, however, because that’s based on past content infringement.
So far, the ad revenue has yet to make a difference to either YouTube’s or the media companies’ bottom line–ads are said to appear on less than 3% of all YouTube video pages. But it’s a step in the right direction.
