Youku Suddenly Gets Religion On IP Protection? Not Exactly

2010-01-20

Chinese online video website Youku.com today opened its copyright identification management platform to identify and prevent the upload of infringing video content by Youku users.

Youku Chief Technology Officer Yao Jian stated: "Trial operation of the copyright identification system has already begun for European and American audio-video copyright holders. Following this initial stage of operations, we will continue to improve and perfect the system, making it more efficient and more convenient to use." (China Tech News)

OK, I understand that such an announcement by a Chinese site that everyone knows has major copyright problems seems dramatic and unexpected. Most local companies spend more of their time dismissing charges of IP infringement than devising ways to combat piracy. In that sense, Youku of course should be congratulated for moving forward with this system.

However, let's not fool ourselves into thinking that Youku suddenly "gets" the whole problem with IP infringement and that the industry has somehow turned a corner.
(More)