Online video sharing sites have always been plagued by the problem of copyrighted material being uploaded without consent from the owners. It took YouTube years and millions of dollars to get the problem under control and it still hasn't completely eradicated it. Justin.TV, the up-and-coming live video streaming site, is hoping to nip the problem in the bud by partnering with content filtering firm Vobile.

“We're working with Vobile to filter content on Justin.tv using their database of content. As of this week we've begun fingerprinting all saved clips on Justin.tv and scanning them against Vobile's content database,” Justin.tv said in an emailed statement. “This new filtering is part of a deal signed with Fox to increase copyright protection for live video. We already offer a takedown tool that lets copyright owners login to a Justin.tv admin interface and kill channels in real time, and hundreds of content owners are using it today.”

The program will start with the saved content that users archive on the site. All of it will be scanned and compared to original works to detect illegal copies, using a technology similar to that deployed by other players in the market like YouTube. Infringing content will be removed from the site but this is just the first step, with the much more slippery issue being live streaming content.

This is especially popular for live sports events and Justin.TV has had issues before with this. For now the site offers content owners a tool to issue a takedown notice in real time with the offending channel being yanked off the “air” the moment it receives the notice but this means that copyright holders have to constantly monitor the channels for illegal streams.

A much better solution will be implemented in fall when Justin.TV will start scanning all the streams for infringing content but that is a considerably harder undertaking than just scanning saved videos. The new filtering tools come as the site signed a partnership with Fox, not for content, but basically an agreement between the two companies assuring that Justin.TV won't get in legal trouble for infringing content its users may stream or upload.