HOWTO sneak Hitler onto YouTube

Cory Doctorow 6:21 pm Tue Apr 20, 2010

Looking to game Google's copyright enforcement bot? That's the system that was used to hunt down rogue Hitler videos that remixed the bunker scene from Downfall, and it's pretty thick:

Mark Smitelli has poked around at the system, uploading copies of the copyrighted song "I Know What Boys Like," sonically altered in various ways: compressing or expanding the time, lowering or raising the pitch, adding noise, etc. Mark runs the complete results, but to roughly summarize: Altering parameters more than 5% often seems to fool the Identifier, and using less than 30 seconds also seems to let the clip slip through the rule-bound robot's shiny little nets. Playing clips in reverse confused the Identifier, but stripping out everything except the vocals did not.

Using a clip for as satire or political commentary undoubtedly wouldn't keep it from the Identifier's snares, although such use is likely protected and non-infringing. The Identifier, unsurprisingly, seems to be a poor reader of human intention. [Thanks to David Abrams for the tip.]

YouTube's automated copyright filter

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