YouTube To Post Japanese Copyright Warning

Just barely responding to copyright complaints from Japanese media, YouTube will display a Japanese-language notice warning against uploading copyrighted material.

Naruto fans of the world look out: The Man wants to pull the plug on your YouTube fix.

In a two-huor face-to-face meeting with a group of Japanese broadcasters and copyright holders, YouTube founders Cad Hurley and Steven Chen said that video sharing site YouTube will start posting a Japanese-language notice on its site warning users against uploading copyrighted material. However, so far the warning notice is the only concession Japanese media has been able to wrangle out of YouTube.

The meeting with JASRAC, the Japan Society for Right of Authors, Composers, and Publishers, comes after JASRAC sent YouTube a series of measures it would like to see the video site take to deter copyright infringement taking place via the service. It did ask that YouTube post Japanese-language notices warning against copyright infringement; it also asked that YouTube begin collecting the names and addresses of uploaders, and that YouTube terminate the accounts of users who upload copyrighted material. Although YouTube says it deletes accounts of users who repeatedly violate terms of service—which includes uploading copyrighted material—the availability of copyrighted Japanese-language content on the service remains a problem—even after YouTube deleted some 30,000 Japanese-language items last October.

JASRAC representatives characterized the meeting with YouTube’s founders as “friendly” and said they look at the meeting as a first step to resolving copyright infringement issues on the service. However, JASRAC also views YouTube’s actions to date as “unsatisfactory.”

YouTube has announced plans to develop a system which will automatically scan uploaded video files in an effort to identify at least some contributed material which infringes on copyright; however, YouTube has been mum as to when such a system might go live.