Google Drive added scanning of “pirated” content by file hashes

The fight against so-called "pirated" content continues. Right holders attract more and more parties to this struggle. Other copyright partners include Google. Now the company’s management has decided to tackle the problem of cleaning Google Drive servers from content that infringes copyright. One of the first measures introduced in this fight is to notify users about copyright problems in the event of sharing of this type of content. In order to determine what kind of content is hosted on the service (normal or “pirated”), Google uses file hash scanning.



Usually, a file hash or its hash sum is called a unique file identifier, which is generated using special software. The basis of the data processing process for obtaining a hash sum is a series of mathematical data transformations (usually these are SHA-1, MD5, CRC algorithms) that are contained in the file. The hash can serve as a “fingerprint” of the file and be used to confirm the authenticity of this file. The fact is that if two files change names or extensions, their hash sum will still be the same. When you change the contents of the file, the hash sum will automatically change.



The head of the division of Google, which deals with issues of copyright, pirated content, etc., confirmed that Google Drive is already working with the hash of files. Now special software assigns each file on the company's servers a special hash, which allows to detect movies, music and other content that violates copyright.

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So far, users who post such content receive only a warning. No other action is taken against the "pirates" by Google. If a user wants to place a “pirated” movie on Google Drive, he can do it without problems only by receiving a notification. It reads: “Do not distribute copyrighted content without permission, also do not provide links to sites that your readers can go to and illegally download copyrighted content.” Also, the notice states that regular violation of the rules may lead to account blocking.



It is not yet known whether Google has blocked someone’s accounts by following its rules or not. In addition, for now the notification is not received by a large percentage of the Google cloud user. However, Google Drive is often used to host any type of copyrighted file. Drive uses some “pirated” resources as storage for such files.



In 2014, these resources placed more than 18,000 video files on Google Drive servers. Most likely, over time the number of such videos has increased many times. The situation was aggravated by the fact that Google did not perform checks on the content being posted. Apparently, after appeals of the right holders, the situation has changed.



One of the readers of Torrentfreak told the representatives of the resource that the other day he received just such a notification, which was discussed above. He posted a pirated movie on his Google Drive and wanted to get a public link to this file. But when you try to create a link, nothing happened.



The Torrentfreak journalists tried to repeat this trick to see the notice, but they could only get this:





The same resource tried to get more information from Google regarding the above mentioned issue. But representatives of the corporation said they would not comment on the details of the “anti-piracy” mechanism of the Drive.



The Content-ID system works not only on Google Drive, it is also used by YouTube, Dropbox and some other services. Google's video service help states that the Content-ID system provides holders with the ability to identify and manage their content on YouTube. The videos that users add to the system are compared with a database of files sent by copyright holders to the Content-ID system. If a match is found, the Content-ID automatically claims the rights to the videos and performs the actions specified by the owner of the files offline.



The rightholder can only be a registered user who meets certain criteria . According to YouTube, those copyright holders who often make unfounded complaints may be denied the right to work with Content ID.



Among other actions that rightholders can perform are tracking video viewing statistics, turning off audio for an audio file that is used improperly, blocking a video for viewing, monetizing a video using ad impressions. In some cases, advertising revenue is divided between the copyright holder and the user who uploaded the video.