In case you are wondering why a lot of YouTube’s videos are suddenly soundless, you shouldn’t blame it on the users who uploaded the video.

 

The explanation is quite simple. In its quest to stay out of legal troubles, Google-owned YouTube is testing a new method to avoid copyright violations.

 

The company has fingerprinted audio tracks and in case the video is using a copyrighted track the user is notified. He can choose to replace the music and post a new version or the video will be muted.

 

Until now, when a music label or other rights owner issued a copyright claim to block audio from YouTube, the video was automatically taken down.

 

Uploaders had two choices: dispute the claim or use a tool to replace the track with one from YouTube’s library of pre-cleared music. Last year, Warner Music Group forced YouTube to take down the videos which were infringing its copyrights.

 

YouTube is also involved in a legal dispute with Viacom, which has sued the company in February 2007 for one billion dollars.