Though Missed By Few, Microsoft's Soapbox Makes Its Return

from the back-from-the-dead dept

Mon, Jun 4th 2007 7:09pm — Joseph Weisenthal

Back in March, Microsoft announced that it would temporarily suspend Soapbox, the company's YouTube clone, while it worked on technology to filter out copyrighted content. At the time, it seemed like this might simply be an excuse to quietly pull the plug on the service (which never seemed to go anywhere), especially considering the poor track record of this type of filtering technology. But the company is ready to give it another go, as Soapbox is back, sporting new technology that promises to filter out copyrighted content. It's not really clear, however, why Microsoft thinks this will really help the site. The challenge is, as always, actually getting users, not making nice with the entertainment companies. Microsoft keeps getting it backwards though, putting the cart before the horse, as it did with the Zune when it offered Universal Music a cut of every player sold. Perhaps the company is hoping that by making this overture to the entertainment industry, it can force Google to follow suit, potentially hamstringing YouTube. But the move could backfire, as it's easy to imagine hackers flooding Soapbox with copyrighted material just to see if they can outsmart the filters.

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7 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 5 Jun 2007 @ 12:02am

No Copyrighted Content == No Content
But the company is ready to give it another go, as Soapbox is back, sporting new technology that promises to filter out copyrighted content.
If that's the case then they aren't going to have any US content because under US law everything is automatically copyrighted as soon as it is made.
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- Fluffy McNutter, 5 Jun 2007 @ 2:04am
  
  Re: No Copyrighted Content == No Content
  If that's the case then they aren't going to have any US content because under US law everything is automatically copyrighted as soon as it is made.
  
  Maybe Mr. Softie wants to copyright your content for you.
  
  Thanks, Big Brother, why, I don't mind if you copyright that for me.
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James, 5 Jun 2007 @ 7:04am

Actually...
..instead of "hackers" flooding that site w/copyrighted content in an attempt to bypass its filters the site is more likely to just die from irrelevance.

And it should for cow-towing to the entertainment industry. If those a-holes can't recognize the promotional value of these types of sites they don't deserve the promotion.
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Steven, 5 Jun 2007 @ 7:40am

Does anyone really care
Hmmm, i dont think too many people are worried that it is back or not. www.crenk.com
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MooseDog, 5 Jun 2007 @ 7:59am

pithy
"The challenge is, as always, actually getting users, not making nice with the entertainment companies"

:agree:

thus, among many other examples, the delay in vista and the irrational strikings of the content represenatives, imho.
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Pitabred, 5 Jun 2007 @ 8:12am

Wait a second... what if I own the copyright to the video? The way the laws are, copyright is assigned as soon as anything is made any more, so could I sue Microsoft if a video I uploaded to Youtube was then uploaded by someone else to soapbox? Seems fair to me.
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Fred Flint, 5 Jun 2007 @ 2:56pm

Feedback for Micro$oft
I think it would be hilarious if a bunch of people made videos about how crappy Microsoft products are and uploaded the videos to Soapbox.
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