MySpace.com has announced a deal with music software company Gracenote (you know, the people behind the software that tells your iTunes what album you're listening to) which will enable the social networking site to better monitor the unauthorised distribution of copyrighted content via its platform.
The move comes as concerns grow among the content industries about the amount of copyright material being illegally distributed by users of websites like MySpace and YouTube. As a result of the new deal MySpace will use Gracenote software to review music recordings uploaded by community members. Those recordings will then be cross referenced with a database of copyright material, which will indicate whether MySpace has been licenced to use the recording. Unlicensed content will be blocked, and users who repeatedly try to upload it will be banned.
Quite what licensing arrangements MySpace has, or hopes to get, with the record companies to back up this new system is currently unclear and therefore it is also not clear how much content currently distributed by the website will be blocked once the Gracenote system is in place.