What is "Content ID"? How to add , remove or change it?

Question

I hear that video files had a so called Content ID which is used to identify that?

What is a content ID?

Is it a fixed length code store inside the video file? Or is it an ID given on registration papers by authority when you get your video licensed?

Are there any tools for adding my videos content ID, or just changing or removing it from my videos?

Solution

It's none of what you think. Content ID is an ongoing program by YouTube to enforce copyright policies.

Rights holders deliver YouTube reference files (audio-only or video) of content they own, metadata describing that content, and policies on what they want YouTube to do when we find a match.

We compare videos uploaded to YouTube against those reference files.

Our technology automatically identifies your content and applies your preferred policy: monetize, track, or block.

There's no real "ID" involved that's actually stored inside a file. No real video metadata or anything.

It's just YouTube applying their "secret" formula to track similar content, which they all do internally.

Comments

[Moab]

clearly they are using metadata (file headers and copyright tags) along with other "secret" algorithms to look for copyright violations....stackoverflow.com/questions/3689814/…

[slhck]

Yeah, any common metadata like author/comments/length can be used together with analysis of the actual video bitstream itself.