YouTube Deals Turn Piracy Into Revenue; New York Times, 9/3/10

Claire Cain Miller, New York Times; YouTube Deals Turn Piracy Into Revenue:

"In the past, Lions Gate, which owns the rights to the “Mad Men” clip, might have requested that TomR35’s version be taken down. But it has decided to leave clips like this up, and in return, YouTube runs ads with the video and splits the revenue with Lions Gate.

Remarkably, more than one-third of the two billion views of YouTube videos with ads each week are like TomR35’s “Mad Men” clip — uploaded without the copyright owner’s permission but left up by the owner’s choice. They are automatically recognized by YouTube, using a system called Content ID that scans videos and compares them to material provided by copyright owners."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/03/technology/03youtube.html?_r=1&ref=technology