YouTube Will Filter Content

According to The Guardian YouTube has unveiled filtering tools that will allow owners of copyrighted material to block their content from appearing on the video-sharing website.

"We are delighted that Google appears to be stepping up to its responsibility and end the practice of infringement," said a lawyer for Viacom, Mike Fricklas, without specifying whether the new technology would affect the seven-month-old lawsuit, which will be examined by a US court later this month.

YouTube has been working on the new technology with engineers from Google ever since the latter bought it in a record $1.7bn (£835m) deal 11 months ago. Five months later, executives from both companies began promising the new copyright protection technology. "It has taken until now to get it right," said David King, a YouTube product manager, during a conference call with reporters yesterday.