May 21, 2007
The YouTube Police
In a cramped office in New York's Times Square, dozens of twentysomethings work day and night scouring YouTube for Viacom TV shows and movies that have been uploaded by just about anybody. For each clip deemed stolen, Viacom's team sends out a "takedown" notice requiring YouTube to remove it immediately. Business Week reports via TV Barn Ticker.
"Back in San Bruno, Calif., a crew of young YouTubers finds the specified clips and pulls them.
... If the whole process seems strangely analog, that's because YouTube is not yet using filtering technology that would automate the process. "It's frustrating," says Rick Cotton, general counsel for NBC Universal, which is sending 1,000 takedown notices a month to YouTube. "And...completely inadequate."
The Web searches are time-consuming and inefficient. Since November, Viacom says, it has reviewed 2 million clips and sent 200,000 takedown notices to the site, a 10% hit rate. NBCU says it is spending well over $1 million a month for its global anti-piracy efforts, which require the services of 25 legal, policy, and tech experts at NBCU.
For its part, YouTube has set up a unit called the SQUAD (Safety Quality User Advocacy Department) Team. It responds, 24/7, to requests to take clips down. "
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