Attributor Corp is launching a product that combs the entire web for ‘unauthorized uses.’ From the WSJ:
They claim to have cracked the thorny computer-science problem of scouring the entire Web by using undisclosed technology to efficiently process and comb through chunks of content. The company says it will have over 10 billion Web pages in its index before the end of this month.
Attributor analyzes the content of clients, who could range from individuals to big media companies, using a technique known as “digital fingerprinting,” which determines unique and identifying characteristics of content. It uses these digital fingerprints to search its index of the Web for the content. The company claims to be able to spot a customer’s content based on the appearance of as little as a few sentences of text or a few seconds of audio or video. It will provide customers with alerts and a dashboard of identified uses of their content on the Web and the context in which it is used.
(if the link to the WSJ goes ‘unfree’ follow the ‘read more’ at the bottom of this post to read the full text)
Copyright Tool
Will Scan Web
For Violations
By KEVIN J. DELANEY
December 18, 2006; Page B1
To deal with the mounting copyright issues swirling around video and other content online, a start-up founded by some respected Silicon Valley executives is taking a novel approach: combing the entire Web for unauthorized uses.
Privately held Attributor Corp. of Redwood City, Calif., has begun testing a system to scan the billions of pages on the Web for clients’ audio, video, images and text — potentially making it easier for owners to request that Web sites take content down or provide payment for its use.
The start-up, which was founded last year and has been in “stealth” mode, is emerging into the public eye today, at a time when some media and entertainment companies’ frustration with difficulties identifying infringing uses of their content online is increasing. The problem has intensified with the proliferation and increasing usage of sites such as Google Inc.’s YouTube, which lets consumers post video clips.
Media and entertainment companies have so far relied on a combination of technology and their own scanning to protect their content online — but with mixed results. Media companies have used digital-rights management technology designed to make it hard to copy or transfer files. But such measures have often proved to be clumsy, despised by consumers or quickly thwarted. That’s the case for DRM technology built into DVDs to prevent them from being ripped onto computers, for example. Entertainment and media companies have also relied on their own staff to scan Web sites for infringing content. But even when such content is spotted and taken down, the companies often see the content pop up in the same places or elsewhere soon after.
“We all know that as soon as somebody comes up with a way to secure a piece of property, somebody else will come within days and crack it,” says Lawrence Iser, a partner at law firm Kinsella Weitzman Iser Kump & Aldisert in Santa Monica, Calif., who represents musical artists and other entertainment industry clients.
Though its service isn’t out yet, Attributor appears to go further than existing techniques for weeding out unauthorized uses of content online. While companies are tackling parts of the same problem — Indigo Stream Technologies Ltd., based in Gibraltar, offers a free service called Copyscape that analyzes a Web page and then uses Google’s search engine to see whether the text is duplicated elsewhere on the Web — Attributor’s approach is seemingly more comprehensive.
Its co-founders, former Yahoo Inc. executive Jim Brock, and Jim Pitkow, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur who has sold companies to Google and VeriSign Inc., claim to have cracked the thorny computer-science problem of scouring the entire Web by using undisclosed technology to efficiently process and comb through chunks of content. The company says it will have over 10 billion Web pages in its index before the end of this month.
“If it works, it’s a fantastic invention,” Mr. Iser says.
It’s unclear whether such a service will be welcomed by Internet companies that allow users to post content. YouTube, News Corp.’s MySpace and others already face copyright lawsuits. In some cases, they’re building systems to identify pirated materials consumers upload to their sites, and say they’re open to sharing revenue with content owners.
Attributor plans to announce today that it has received about $10 million in funding to date from investors including Sigma Partners, Selby Venture Partners, Draper Richards, First Round Capital and Amicus Capital.
Attributor analyzes the content of clients, who could range from individuals to big media companies, using a technique known as “digital fingerprinting,” which determines unique and identifying characteristics of content. It uses these digital fingerprints to search its index of the Web for the content. The company claims to be able to spot a customer’s content based on the appearance of as little as a few sentences of text or a few seconds of audio or video. It will provide customers with alerts and a dashboard of identified uses of their content on the Web and the context in which it is used.
The content owners can then try to negotiate revenue from whoever is using it or request that it be taken down. In some cases, they may decide the content is being used fairly or to acceptable promotional ends. Attributor plans to help automate the interaction between content owners and those using their content on the Web, though it declines to specify how.
Company executives believe its system will provide transparency and accountability to encourage more owners to put their content online with confidence they’ll be able to police its use, and share in any profits.
“We believe that we can provide an infrastructure that will support all kinds of outcomes and remedies, which will align the interests of content owners, content hosts and search engines around legitimate syndication and monetization,” says Mr. Brock, Attributor’s chief executive.
“We see this as a way to take us out of the course we’ve been on, which is more litigation,” says Mr. Pitkow, who is chief technology officer.
Attributor has begun testing the system, and won’t release it officially until the first quarter of next year. The co-founders’ track records, however, lend credibility to their claims. As Yahoo’s first outside counsel, Mr. Brock tackled Internet copyright issues for the Internet company as far back as 1994 and later oversaw some of its core businesses as a senior vice president. Mr. Pitkow is a computer science Ph.D. who worked at Xerox’s legendary PARC research facility. In 2001, he helped to sell the intellectual property of Outride Inc., where he was president and chairman, to Google. Last year, he sold Moreover Technologies, where he was CEO and chairman, to VeriSign.
“They’re real guys who have solved hard-core problems,” says Ali Aydar, chief operating officer of Snocap Inc., a digital-music registry start-up. Snocap and Attributor share a backer in Silicon Valley investor Ron Conway. “Content owners I’ve talked to outside of the music business would love a system which tells them where their content is being utilized,” Mr. Aydar adds.
Attributor executives decline to say how frequently they will update their Web index, a key factor in their ability to stay on top of postings. They also say they won’t at least initially monitor peer-to-peer file swapping systems, where large amounts of pirated music, movies, TV shows and software are traded.
Write to Kevin J. Delaney at kevin.delaney@wsj.com
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