Microsoft bars new users from Soapbox video-sharing site
Last Updated: Friday, March 23, 2007 | 7:14 PM ET
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Microsoft Corp. has halted new account activations for its Soapbox video-sharing service after inking a deal to distribute content from NBC Universal Inc. and News Corp.'s forthcoming video-sharing venture.
The world's largest software maker temporarily stopped letting new users join Soapbox while it puts a system in place to help keep copyrighted content from being uploaded without authorization.
Visitors to the Soapbox site on Friday were greeted by a message on its front page that said: "If you don't have a Soapbox account, we'll be opening the doors again very soon with some cool new stuff to try. Thanks for your patience as we continue to build the best place to 'make your statement' on the web."
The message said users of the video-sharing service who already have an account are now required to "temporarily … log in using your Windows Live ID before you can watch or upload videos."
"We have temporarily closed Soapbox on MSN Video to new users to begin implementing copyright filtering solutions," Adam Sohn, director of global sales and marketing, said in a written statement e-mailed to CBC News Online Friday by the software giant's PR company.
"We want to automate finding copyrighted content for content owners as much as possible through good tools, as well as run filtering in the background. Following this period, we will open Soapbox back up in public beta to more broadly test the filters."
Preventing copyrighted content from being uploaded by users without permission from content owners has been a widespread problem for video-sharing sites.
Only a week earlier, Viacom Inc. launched a lawsuit against Google Inc. for failing to keep its TV shows from being uploaded to YouTube, which Google owns.
Microsoft executive enthuses about deal
In a bid to control their content and capitalize on the online video phenomenon, NBC and News Corp. — the company that owns MySpace — announced Thursday that they were joining forces to launch a video-sharing service to compete with YouTube.
The companies are using their partnerships with other media and technology companies, such as Yahoo Inc., Microsoft Corp.'s MSN, Time Warner Inc.'s AOL and News Corp.-owned MySpace, in a bid to reach an audience that would rival YouTube's.
"Our investments in MSN Video and SoapBox over the past couple of years have shown us that video is an amazing driver of user engagement and excitement, both for consumers and for advertisers," Kevin Johnson, president of Microsoft's platform and services division, said in a written statement Thursday.
The world's largest software maker sees the NBC-News Corp. deal as an ideal way to bring consumers of online video together with advertisers, Johnson said.
"Building on the work we have done with MSN Video and Soapbox, we are taking another step toward realizing that vision."
The NBC-News Corp. site, which has not been named, would include TV shows and movies as well as clips that visitors could remix and share with others.
Google bought YouTube for $1.65 billion US in November 2006.
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