YouTube has a new sheriff in town – and its name is Nexicon, Inc.

[Bellamy]

Anti-Piracy Firm Seeks to Monetize Illegal Filesharing

 

Pirates could soon be invoiced for their activities

 

YouTube has a new sheriff in town – and its name is Nexicon, Inc.

 

Nexicon, a “digital media intelligence” company, announced a partnership with YouTube last week that will see it monetizing illegal uploads as a third party-intermediary, on behalf of movie studios and other copyright holders.

 

According to a press release posted last week, Nexicon will monitor YouTube users’ activities via its content management system, matching YouTube uploads against original, copyrighted content sourced from the company's “MARC” anti-piracy system. Matches will eventually turn into automated DMCA notices sent to individual pirates, who will be given the option of settling online “in less than three clicks.”

 

The settlement part of the system, which Nexicon calls “Get Amnesty,” bears a striking resemblance to the RIAA’s own “P2P Lawsuits” site, where those facing a piracy lawsuit can preemptively settle claims before their case advances to the court system. Both sites advertise the ability to pay online via credit card, and Get Amnesty even offers PayPal support.

 

“This is a significant development for our company as we continue to provide innovative solutions for copyright holders in the digital marketplace,” said Nexicon VP of Strategy & Planning Sam Glines. “Content owners now have the ability to monetize their copyrighted digital media and products, and we are here to deliver these capabilities.”

 

Nexicon announced Get Amnesty in 2007, and the company says it plans to deploy MARC against file-sharers – both uploaders and downloaders – on P2P networks within the next couple of weeks. According to MARC product literature, the system will target almost every major venue for piracy on the net, including FTP servers, IRC, P2P applications like KaZaA or BearShare, BitTorrent networks, UseNet, and online auctions.

 

In an interview with DailyTech, Glines said artists would receive a much larger cut through Get Amnesty than they would through regular, legal distribution channels such as iTunes. Transactions are handled by Nexicon and an unannounced third-party partner, who will distribute settlement proceeds to labels or artists directly, depending on each artist's situation.

 

Like the RIAA’s online settlement option, critics were quick to label Get Amnesty as “extortion,” noting that the site strongly suggests users settle with Nexicon instead of letting detected infringement go to trial:

 

Will I need a lawyer?

 

Deciding to hire a lawyer is entirely up to you. However, as with any legal proceeding, the guidance and representation of a lawyer can be very important. It is highly probable that the cost incurred to retain a lawyer will exceed the settlement offer. For this reason alone, the acceptance of the settlement offer is an attractive alternative to working through our legal system.

 

It is unclear how MARC’s systems are able to monitor downloading activity from point-to-point networks such as IRC, where individual file transactions usually occur without informing the central server, or even other users on the network.

Update 09/19/2008: There was a factual error in the original verson of this article: data on copyright infringers from YouTube is not fed back into MARC.

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=12991

[Nikosn17]

noooooooo, first Viacom now this...

[Bellamy]

I've noticed youtube start remove some videos auto, even as soon as when you uploaded the video. I guess this system is already working.

[CelineAndRene]

I haven't noticed. So if it's illegal will they take legal action on you?

O.O

 

That's scary lol

[Krys]

there goes the videos

[KimboCosmo]

Thats going to suck if we can't watch anything anymore...anything good at least...then they might as well shut down Youtube.

[Edwin]

Thats going to suck if we can't watch anything anymore...anything good at least...then they might as well shut down Youtube.

Youtube compresses and degrades the quality of the videos anyways. Hopefully this will entice more Celine fans to share their files HERE at better quality

Edited September 22, 2008 at 03:02 AM by EdwinDeux

[Bellamy]

It's good for promo though. But I won't try to upload videos from Oprah... there.

[Jacqui]

That sucks. So if someone uploads something illegally, what are the worst possible consequences? Like, can you be sent to prison for that, or fined millions of dollars, or what?