YouTube Eases the Way to More Revenue

YouTube appears to be mastering the art of turning video piracy into revenue for itself and its partners. For years, the clips of television shows, music videos and other copyrighted content that users uploaded to YouTube without permission were a source of tension between Google, which owns YouTube, and media companies, which owned the copyrights. But since last year, a growing number of media companies have stopped insisting that YouTube take down those unauthorized clips. Instead, they are choosing to claim the videos as their own, and allowing YouTube to sell advertising when people watch them. The revenue is split between YouTube and the content owners. YouTube says that the clips uploaded by fans without permission account for a third of the video streams on which the company displays advertising. That number could grow after a deal to be announced Wednesday that will make it easier for many media companies to upload new content into YouTube's reference library of copyrighted audio and video.