Google Preps Copyright Filter For YouTube

Google is ready to introduce a copyright protection tool that helps media owners to automatically report acts of piracy on its YouTube video site, according to Chief Executive Eric Schmidt.

Schmidt said the new tools, known as "Claim Your Content," could resolve accusations that the world's largest provider of Web search services is tolerating piracy by consumers to share video on its YouTube Web site.

That complaint is featured in a high-profile lawsuit filed last month by media conglomerate Viacom Inc. that seeks more than $1 billion in damages from Google for alleged violations of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

"As that product rolls out, the (lawsuit) issue becomes moot," Schmidt said.

He was speaking at the Web 2.0 Expo conference in San Francisco this week. Google paid $1.65 billion last November to acquire YouTube, the world's most popular online video sharing site.

Google's Powerpoint
Earlier, Schmidt said Google was set to introduce software for creating meeting presentations online, offering a twist on Microsoft's popular PowerPoint tool.

The presentation software is based on the acquisition of Tonic Systems, a maker of document conversion tools based in Australia.

Google is adding presentation software as a new feature to Google Docs, a collection of Web-based product tools such as word-processing, spreadsheets, e-mail and home page publishing that offers an alternative to Microsoft Office, Schmidt said.

But the head of the world's Web search leader, which expanded last year to offer a new category of online software for use by consumers and businesses, played down its effort as any direct challenge to Microsoft and its PowerPoint software.

"We don't think so. The reason is it doesn't have all the functionality nor is it intended to have all the functionality of Microsoft Office," Schmidt said.

" It just made sense to add presentations to the mix; after all, when you create slides, you're almost always going to share them. Now students, writers, teachers, organizers, and, well, just about everyone who uses a computer can look forward to having real-time, web-based collaboration across even more common business document formats," said Sam Schillace, Engineering Director of Google.