In Variety, Scott Kirsner looks at a new technology at YouTube called Video ID, which Kirsner describes as a “lost-and-found desk for unauthorized video content…through which media companies can “claim” videos that have been uploaded to YouTube without permission.”In a brief entry inspired by the LA Times‘ coverage of Video ID, Chuck Tryon comments that there are potentially “some real problems here in that many of the videos that would be subject to removal would fall into Fair Use categories,” and Kirsner does address this in his story. Noting that the YouTube faithful tend to “get steamed when the site takes down videos that make incidental use of copyright material, especially parodies or commentaries,” Kirsner reports that YouTube is reticent to explain exactly how Video ID works, because they don’t want videomakers who are using copyrighted content (whether within the bounds of Fair Use or not) to be able to easily skirt the system.

It’s entirely possible that Video ID could prove to be entirely blind to fair use; there’s also the issue of conflicts between copyright holders, as well as a lot of possible damage to YouTube’s organically aggregated fan communities. More thoughts after the jump.

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