Sony's attempt to create a video-sharing website to rival YouTube took a step forward today when it announced that its eyeVio service was opening its doors to companies wishing to place video advertising.
The Japanese-language video site launched in a low-key fashion earlier this year with a unique approach to the problem of users uploading copyright material.
Active approach
EyeVio's staff monitor and review every single upload to the site and delete anything they consider to be in breach of copyright laws. In contrast, YouTube has a wait-and-see policy of relying on owners of copyright material contacting them to ask for its removal.
As for user-created videos, eyeVio applies a Creative Commons licence to everything, allowing users to retain copyright of their own material but permitting others to use it for their own purposes.
PSP downloads too
The service is flexible in other ways too - it features a blogging and email section, as well as tools for uploading a wide variety of video formats and for downloading clips to phones, the PSP and Sony video Walkmen.
The video-sharing market in Japan is vast, with the country constituting YouTube's second largest body of users after the US. If Sony's ramping up of the eyeVio service proves successful, the rewards are likely to be equally large.
