MySpace Implements Technology to Protect Copyrighted Content

LOS ANGELES, February 12: The News Corporation-owned social
networking site MySpace.com has launched a pilot program intended to prevent
unauthorized copyrighted content from being posted to the site.

The news comes amid increasing criticism of Google-owned
YouTube, which has been targeted by the likes of News Corp.’s chairman and CEO,
Rupert Murdoch, and NBC Universal’s president and CEO, Jeff Zucker, in recent
weeks. News Corporation also went after the site after copies of 24 and The Simpsons were posted online prior to their television
broadcasts.

MySpace’s copyright filtering system will use digital
fingerprinting technology licensed from Audible Magic, a specialist in content
rights management. MySpace's filter screens video uploaded by users and blocks
any video matching a fingerprint in MySpace's database.

"MySpace is dedicated to ensuring that content owners,
whether large or small, can both promote and protect their content in our community,”
said Chris DeWolfe, the CEO and co-founder of MySpace. “For MySpace, video
filtering is about protecting artists and the work they create.”

The news follows the launch of the website’s audio filtering
technology last fall. MySpace has also developed and is making available a
special content takedown tool to make it easier and more efficient for
copyright owners to request removal of any user-posted content they claim is
unauthorized.

MySpace is already blocking users from uploading any audio
or video files containing Universal Music Group’s music that is not authorized.
NBC Universal and Fox also are participating in the pilot program. MySpace has offered the full-range of
its content protection tools to all other major music labels and to other content
owners, free of charge.