Video sites offer tracking data

To prevent copyright problems, streaming video Web sites are increasingly adopting technologies to track which sites use their content.
The new systems track statistics such as which sites are displaying the videos, and how many times they have been viewed. Some sites offer watermarks that creators can put on videos to protect their creative content.
Hanaro Dream said yesterday that its video portal Web site Andu shows a “record” for video clips on all its Web sites. For instance, the service shows how many times a video has been embedded in other sites, how many comments have been posted to the clip, and the number of times it has been viewed on a comprehensive basis.
Pandora TV also has a function that traces videos that are distributed from Pandora to other sites, so that the person who uploads the videos can see what Web sites the videos are being embedded in.
The counter for how many times the video has been viewed includes visitors who saw it through other Web sites.
Mncast.com, which is managed by Damoim, recently adopted a similar program and is running the tracking service for a pilot period. The service provides information on where the video has been embedded over the past seven days.
These services of specialized sites for user-created content are beginning to differ from similar video posting services offered by major portals such as Naver, Daum and Cyworld. Naver, for instance, only counts how many times a video has been viewed through its own portal.
“The biggest problem in encouraging user-created content is illegal distribution and misuse of content,” said Lee Yeon-ju, head of Hanaro Dream’s service planning team.
“This service, which traces the distribution of the video, is the beginning of realistic services that we need to take to strengthen the management of copyrights on user-created content.”

By Wohn Dong-hee Staff Writer [wohn@joongang.co.kr]