Less than a year after introducing a new tool for spotting copyright-infringing content on YouTube, the Google-owned video site has reported some surprisingly intelligent behaviour on the part of content owners.
According to Google, the Video ID system has seen copyright holders overwhelmingly choose to allow their content to stay on line so they can benefit from the free publicity and earn a little extra cash from advertising.
Keep it up
Results show that 90 per cent of video uploaded by users that breaches copyright has ended up staying on YouTube even when discovered by Video ID.
David King, Google's YouTube product manager explained what was going on:
"We've been curious to see what copyright holders would choose. Would the vast majority of partners block user-uploaded videos? Or would they embrace Video ID as an opportunity to generate revenue and exposure for their content online?
"As it turns out, our partners are choosing the latter, monetising 90 per cent of all claims created through Video ID."
Traffic winner
He goes on to explain that most content owners double their traffic if they allow user-uploaded videos to stay online, with some seeing an increase of as much as 900 per cent.
Given the initially Luddite approach of most copyright holders to video sharing, it's a refreshing change to see so many finally get with the programme.
