After months of promising a piracy content filter, Google (NSDQ: GOOG) is now beta testing its YouTube Video Identification technology designed to help prevent any further lawsuits over the posting of unauthorized content. The video identification technology will be used to ban accounts that are known to be repeat-infringers, add a unique “hash” of every video removed for copyright violations and provide content owners with an electronic notification and takedown tool. In an announcement on the YouTube site, the company offers to work with copyright holders on what they specifically want done with their videos and in an aside, offering a pitch to share revenue. More details in the Release.

-- Marketwatch: Despite the promises, the YouTube Video Identification tool cannot prevent the initial posting of unauthorized content. And therefore, the protections that Google is seeking to institute might not lead companies like Viacom (NYSE: VIA) to back off its $1 billion copy infringement suit against the company.

-- LATimes: “We really need the content community to work with us,” YouTube product manager David King said. “They need to help us help them. We need something to match to. We can’t match in thin air.”...YouTube’s King would not say how accurate the technology has proven to be. He said that the more doctored the video, the harder it is to find. But he added that the technology was sensitive enough to match a TV newscast that was recorded by someone standing in front of a television with a camera.

-- Variety: Any media company can use the service, regardless of whether the company has a formal relationship with YouTube. The site won’t be specific about its revenue-sharing deals, but some sources estimate that roughly 70 to 80 percent of the revenue will go to media companies.

• Viacom-Google Copyright Case Underway; YouTube To Add Video Fingerprinting This Fall