The copyright-protection technology currently being trialled by YouTube has had a most unexpected result in the shape of an old-fashioned content owner embracing fan uploads to promote itself on the video-sharing site.
Japan's Kadokawa Group, which owns various TV and film ventures, has been so impressed with YouTube Video Identification it has
to try to earn an extra buck.
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Key to the tool is the fact that it can notify copyright holders when it thinks one of their videos has been uploaded and they then have control over what to do with it.
They can choose to delete it or let it stay on the site, in which case a copyright mark can be added automatically or advertising and links to places to buy full versions of the material slotted in.
Kadokawa's CEO, Tsuguhiko Kadokawa, was unusually frank in explaining the sudden about-turn in attitudes to YouTube: "I used to think that we had to protect our content from being posted on websites because [it was] illegally used for free. But now YouTube can be a platform to recognise the right holders of user-uploaded images and [to] distribute part of the earned profit."
If more companies follow Kadogawa's lead, who knows - we might even see the return of a little commonsense to the space where the 'net and movie studios collide?
