YouTube to test video ID with Time Warner, Disney

By Kenneth Li and Eric Auchard

NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Top online video service YouTube will soon test a new video identification technology with two of the world's largest media companies, Time Warner Inc. (TWX.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Walt Disney Co. (DIS.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).

The technology, developed by engineers at YouTube-owner Google Inc. (GOOG.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), will help content owners such as movie and TV studios identify videos uploaded to the site without the copyright owner's permission, legal, marketing and strategy executives at YouTube told Reuters in an interview on Monday.

The so-called video fingerprinting tools, which identify unique attributes in the video clips, will be available for testing in about a month, a YouTube executive said.

"The technology was built with the Disney's and Time Warner's in mind," Chris Maxcy, YouTube partner development director, said, adding that, since early this year, Google has been testing audio-fingerprinting tools with record labels.

These tools will be used to identify copyrighted material, after which media companies can decide if they would like to remove the material or keep it up, as part of a revenue-sharing deal with YouTube, which can sell advertising alongside it.

Once proven to work, the technology could be used to block the uploading of copyrighted clips, YouTube product manager David King said. It aims to make the tools widely available to any copyright owner later this year.

YouTube has come under fire from several other traditional media companies, which say it has dragged its heels in offering reliable ways to identify video clips uploaded by regular users without permission.

Unable to reach a distribution agreement, MTV Networks-owner Viacom Inc. (VIAb.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) sued Google and YouTube for more than $1 billion in damages in March, charging the company with "massive intentional copyright infringement" after demanding the removal of clips of its popular shows "Colbert Report" and "Daily Show," hosted by comedian Jon Stewart.