Nabbing Video Pirates: Who Needs Google?

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King declined to give statistics on the system's accuracy in spotting infringements. One industry source who was briefed on the technology a few months ago said Google's system did fine in finding perfect copies of copyrighted material—but not so well when that content had been digitally altered to avoid detection.

Even if the technology works, Google faces big political challenges, too. Because it is the largest video site, YouTube can claim rights to a bigger share of revenue than smaller sites that attract fewer viewers. That means some content owners might be loath to partner with YouTube if they can reach better terms with a less formidable partner. Says one studio executive: "I'm sure they're going to defend their business position as aggressively as they can—just like the movie studios will."

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YouTube will need to develop more ways for content owners to get paid as well. Currently, the YouTube system offers only one payment method: sharing in ad revenue when someone watches infringing clips. But rather than a piece of ad revenue, some content owners might prefer that YouTube send the viewer to the content owner's site. That way, the more people who try to watch clips from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart or The Colbert Report, the more Viacom could boost traffic to its Comedy Central site. Asked if YouTube would make it possible to send users to content owners' sites, King said: "We haven't had the chance to add that feature yet."

What's more, some industry insiders question whether Google is the proper entity to be offering content identification. While it may be the biggest Web venue, the number of channels for video distribution is exploding—and studios and other content owners don't want to provide different digital IDs to each of them. "If all of the user-generated content sites start doing their own, it wouldn't be good for the studios because we'd have to be pumping out fingerprints all over the place," says the studio exec.

The drawbacks of YouTube's methods could create opportunities for makers of rival technologies. Vobile's system did very well in the MPAA trials, sources say. It's effective not only at identifying material that is infringing but also at not coming up with false positives that accuse people of infringing when they haven't. Vobile CEO Yangbin Wang says YouTube announced its system before it was ready for prime time. "I see it as more of a marketing event, because the pressure was on them to say something. But they still have to prove they have something that works."

The biggest challenge, though, could be getting content owners onboard as partners. Indeed, King admits YouTube has had only "limited" conversations with nine content owners. While Disney (DIS), Time Warner (TWX) and CBS (CBS) are experimenting with the technology, they've yet to agree to hand over their content to YouTube. "We really need the content owners to work with us," says King. "We need them to help us."

Burrows is a senior writer for BusinessWeek, based in Silicon Valley .