As previously reported, facing a barrage of lawsuits and copyright infringement claims, YouTube has been promising for almost a year that it will introduce content filtering technology to protect and enforce IP rights of content-owners - and it has now been revealed that this technology could be live by autumn.
During a scheduling hearing for Viacom's previously reported copyright infringement action against YouTube, a lawyer for parent company Google told the presiding judge that the technology would "possibly" be in place as early as September. However, a YouTube spokesman was more guarded saying only that it is "difficult to forecast specific launch dates".
The technology is a critical element of YouTube's licensing deals with content-owners, allowing it to identify uploaded copyrighted material and either compensate owners accordingly, or block the content from appearing on its network. YouTube currently removes content at the request of content owners, but due to the massive popularity of the service, such content is often reposted by users almost immediately.