More Black and White "Solutions" to Gray Areas

As I've said before, I am wary of binary solutions to alleged copyright infringement. Otherwise infringing uses of material are often legal due to the exception known as fair use.

However, the pressures of major content owners has created a market for these services which claim to scan uploaded video or music and determine, automatically, if it is copyrighted material. By creating a "fingerprint" of the original content and comparing the uploaded material, allegedly infringing material is eliminated.

The New York Times has a story about two new startups in this field. Audible Magic is the most prominent in this field and will be used my News Corp.'s MySpace.

The article also mentions Guba which after implementing a similar technology, was able to secure content deals with major studies.

But when Guba began blocking many copyrighted clips last April, its popularity plunged.

“We took a huge hit,” said Eric Lambrecht, Guba’s chief technology officer.

The consumers are in control and they want their media on their terms.