MySpace has linked with technology firm Auditude to profit from the use of copyright video online.

Social network MySpace has joined up with technology firm Auditude to allow its users to post copyright video online in return for advertising the source of the content.

News Corporation’s MySpace has announced that it has signed a deal with Viacom’s MTV Networks and online video technology company Auditude to allow the automatic identifying of online video clips uploaded by its hundreds of millions of users.

Instead of triggering the usual take-down notices, copyright-infringing footage of select MTV Networks programming uploaded by MySpace subscribers would be automatically redistributed with advertisements that would generate revenue for the companies.

Auditude will deliver a sophisticated ad-serving platform with a video-fingerprinting system that cross indexes billions of seconds of TV and online footage in seconds.

It means that any video uploaded onto MySpace will be identified immediately and feature an ad known as “attribution overlay” – a semitransparent strip that covers the lower third of the video player. It will identify the channel that provides the programme as well as links to either see a full-length episode or purchase a download. In addition, the overlay can convey a separate brand message from an advertiser that could trigger a second video within the player.

MySpace will be implementing the system with initial support for content from MTV Networks, with shows including The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Punk’d, and The Hills, however it is expected that many more content providers will follow.

Auditude’s database spans over 250 million videos and four years of television content, all sorted by show and airdate. An internal study conducted by Auditude showed viewers had uploaded 20 times the number of video clips compared with those uploaded by content owners, while viewership of those clips uploaded by viewers were six times higher than the same clips uploaded by content owners.

The Auditude technology is similar to a system already being employed by YouTube. The site’s Content Identification tool gives content owners the choice of removing infringing material or serving an ad.