File-sharing tracking specialist Bay TSP is to begin trials of video and audio fingerprinting technology aimed at monitoring copyright infringements on user-generated content sites.

The trials, which will use search technology provided by Nippon Telephone and Telegraph Corporation (NTT), will allow content owners ‘to monitor and manage how their intellectual property is used online’ focusing on sites like YouTube, Daily Motion, Google Video and Yahoo Video, a press release from the company said.

Central to the tracking of this content is Bay TSP’s ‘fingerprint library’, which uses a series of filters to judge whether ugc on websites includes copyrighted material.

After the testing period is complete, the companies hope to launch a commercial service that will enable content owners to generate audio and video fingerprints for their own material.

“The benefit of our Content Authentication Platform [CAP] is that it works with or without the cooperation of the UGC sites. Preliminary tests have shown that we can provide timely feedback that would allow UGC site operators to remove unauthorized content before large numbers of people can see it,” said Mark Ishikawa, CEO of BayTSP, in the release.

“For UGC sites that want to implement content filtering and negotiate revenue sharing arrangements with content owners, CAP provides independent verification of how the content is displayed, how many people view it, and can calculate revenue sharing using business rules set by the content owner and UGC site operator that can be tailored to each offering.”