A press release from Vobile has revealed under pressure file hosting website Hotfile's plans to actively scan uploads for infringing content.
Hotfile has been involved in a lawsuit with the biggest movie studios in America, as the website has been accused of not only hosting pirated content, but also promoting the upload of pirated content.
This latest move to add active content scanning and filtering may be an attempt to allay Hollywood's fears, but it may all be too late, as the MPAA, Hollywood's voice on copyright issues, has already requested a summary judgement on a matter that they feel is all but decided.
Regardless, Hotfile's Anton Titov believe adding Vobile's 'vCloud9' scanning technology right now represents the best move forward. "We believe it is the right time for Hotfile to implement additional technical measures against copyright infringement. As the amount of content grows on cloud-storage platforms, legitimate services become vulnerable to abuse by copyright infringers," said Titov.
vCloud9 is able to scan uploaded files, including compressed archives, and match the content with its database of "authorized video fingerprints, metadata and business rules from major movie studios, television networks and record labels".
Whether this will be enough to convince Hollywood and record labels of Hotfile's honest intentions, it's hard to say, but this latest move fits into the pattern of tougher copyright enforcement across the file hosting sector, ever since the government took down Megaupload for copyright infringement.
Google just last week came to Hotfile's defence in its MPAA lawsuit, claiming that Hotfile has already done enough in regards to anti-piracy enforcement, to allow the website to be protected under current copyright laws.
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