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In the latest iteration of the How Google Fights Piracy report, the search engine giant has outlined just how much money has been paid out to rightsholders via YouTube's Content ID.

Having spent more than $100 million on building the Content ID system, which scans uploaded videos for copyrighted content to allow the rightsholder to monetize the video regardless of whether the original uploader had upload permission or not, it appears the system is yielding dividends for the 9000+ rightsholders that have signed up. Google reports that over $3 billion has been paid out to rightsholders via Content ID alone.

In the same report, Google also revealed that in the period of October 2017 to September 2018 alone, more than $1.8 billion was paid out to the music industry thanks to ad revenue, which means that the industry has now received more than $6 billion in total ad revenue from YouTube.

The report also detailed the success of Content ID from the point of view of video uploaders, including cover artists who have found fame (and fortune) without falling foul of copyright claims that would have been the norm for uploads of covers prior to the existence of Content ID. Google says in cases like this, both uploaders and rightsholders can profit from uploads.

Google also took note of other actions they've taken to prevent piracy on YouTube, including going after those who offer tools to "rip" song from YouTube music videos.

The 'How Google Fights Piracy' report also detailed Google's efforts to curb piracy on their search engine platform, including the success of demoting infringing website on search results. Google also noted that piracy related searches are in fact rare on Google compared to legitimate and general search terms. For example, the search for the popular TV show using the term "stranger things" was 15,474 times more popular than the term "stranger things watch free".

[via How Google Fights Piracy]