Google to Hollywood: “We’ve got your back.”
The tech giant released a report Friday titled “How Google Fights Piracy,” detailing how content creators and rightsholders are able to maximize their benefits from online platforms like YouTube. Google lauded its Content ID system, which identifies user-uploaded videos and allows rightsholders to monetize the upload rather than send a take-down notice. Since 2007, the program has paid $1 billion to copyright holders, a Google spokesperson told TheWrap.
Also read: TheWrap’s 2014 ShortList Film Fest Rocks YouTube Space LA (Photos)
Unfamiliar with Content ID? Here’s how it works. Users often upload videos that include copyrighted material, say from Disney’s hit, “Frozen.” Sometimes these users sing the exact song, sometimes they sing parodies. In the “old days,” Disney might have a team to track these users and request that they take down the offending video. Now, Disney can slap an ad on it, monetize it, and let the user keep the video online. It’s been great for fan engagement.
“Our Content ID system on YouTube, which identifies user-uploaded videos for rightsholders, won a Primetime Emmy in 2013 and has generated over a billion dollars for the content industry,” boasted Google. “Content ID now accounts for more than a third of YouTube’s monetizable views.”
Also view: Christopher Nolan’s ‘Interstellar’ at Center of Unique Google Deal
Currently, over 1 million partner channels from more than 30 countries are earning money from their YouTube videos and more than 5,000 rightsholder partners, including networks, movie studios and record labels, use Content ID. And if there is an issue that requires a take down notice? The search engine claims that it processes millions of copyright removal requests per week, each one is addressed on average in less than six hours.
“Now more than ever it’s obvious that the Internet is a boon to creativity,” said the report. “More music, more video, more text, and more software is being created by more people in more places than ever before. Every kind of creative endeavor, both amateur and professional, is being transformed by the new opportunities and lower costs made possible by digital tools and online distribution.”
To reads the full report, click here.