Justin.tv, one of the modern live webcasting services on the net, will be testifying in a hearing held by the House Judiciary Board tomorrow morning. The subject of the hearing: the future of live online sports broadcasting. We got hold of the start up's written and oral affidavit, which Justin.tv hopes will be enough to persuade the Council that the character of live video broadcasting makes it very difficult for them to avoid copyrighted content from ending up on the site, whether it's live sports or other content like Television shows.
At last, Justin.tv calls on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which they claim should provide them with a safe harbor for copyright-infringing content that appears on the internet site before they or the acceptable right owners get an opportunity to remove it. Justin.tv goes to great lengths to be certain they are considered a technology supplier firstly, which delivers a platform that will sadly be misused by people to violate the rights of 3rd parties. The start up states that it will bring live video into the conventional very like Flickr.
The issue is are they doing all that they can to battle piracy? In October 2009, Justin.tv makes a claim to have delivered over forty-seven million hours of live video to over 30 million spectators around the globe. The company explains it has worked with content owners to reassure the appearance of unapproved content on Justin.tv remains limited, and that they supply rights owners with tools that allow them to observe the site and directly initiate the takedown of content they claim is being broadcast without authorisation. Additionally, Justin.tv makes a claim to have developed a "commercially-viable" system in association with Vobile that authorizes unapproved content on the site that's not straight away detected by a copyright owner to be identified and removed instantly from Justin.tv. The company explains it does loads more than the law needs to stop illegal content from ending up on the site. But seriously, all that it takes is a trip to the current page, which features streams from the most well liked "producers", to see that their efforts have been often in vain. As you can see from the screen-capture above, that page for a moment that filled to the edge with unauthorized content, which undoubtedly brings a lot of eyeballs with it.
How hard is it able to be to watch only the most streamed live channels and take down broadcastings of Television shows like Chums, South Park and The Office? The largest copyright violations are the ones happening in channels that get the maximum traffic that is the character of the beast so they should not be too tough to spot.
Either their identification or fingerprinting technology does not work all that well, or Justin.tv is not as serious about fighting robbery as they claim.
