MySpace To Block Copyrighted Music

But predatory stalking by kid touchers is still unchecked by technology.

Myspace is using technology to screen all uploaded content against digital fingerprints and signatures of copyrighted works, and will strip “offending” content from its members’ pages. This is of course, in response to threats of lawsuits. From the BBC here:

Social networking site MySpace is to block users from uploading copyrighted music to its pages. It will use a file-filtering application to scan old and new content to weed out any unauthorized material.

Illegal files, the company said, would be removed and persistent offenders would be banned from the site.

Online sites are coming under increasing pressure from the music industry to stop copyright infringement on their pages.

MySpace, which reportedly has over 90 million users, is to use technology from a company called Gracenote to review and identify copyright files on its site.

MySpace can use technology to filter out files, but they can’t use technology to filter out common words and phrases that would likely denote child predatory practices? They can’t use technology to flag personal pages that may be exposing too much information about a child? They can’t use technology to notice when someone “comment swarms” a profile indicating an arrest or death of a member?

The technology exists, and Myspace has the money to implement such safety features. But they haven’t done it because the threat of monetary loss due to copyright lawsuits are more pressing. Maybe if MySpace were sued by grieving parents of children murdered or molested by MySpace members, such technology would be implemented.