Google is set to sign a deal with Audible Magic, a company that supplies technology that identifies pirated content online, to police YouTube, its video-sharing site, for bootlegged music and videos.

The news comes as content owners become increasingly impatient with YouTube's failure to build a system that automatically filters its site for pirated content. Under the current set-up, content owners have to notify YouTube, asking it to remove each pirated clip that is identified.

To short-cut that process, YouTube had been in talks several months ago - before its acquisition by Google - to use a system developed by Audible Magic, which was designed to identify music posted on the site against a database, and alert the site’s operators when a pirated track is uploaded, according to a source close to those talks.

An outline of an agreement with Audible Magic is understood to have been in place when Google announced that it would buy YouTube for $1.65 billion in October. However, Google chose not to activate it, promising music labels instead that it would deliver its own technology by January, a deadline that was missed.

It is understood that after coming under fierce pressure from content owners, Google has now agreed to use the Audible Magic system on YouTube, though no formal announcement has been made.

Audible Magic recently agreed a deal under which it will supply technology designed to pinpoint bootlegged music and video content to MySpace, the social networking site also owned by News Corporation, parent company of The Times.

The group already has relationships with the major record labels, which have registered their content in Audible Magic’s database. The group’s corporate partners include EMI Recorded Music, Sony/BMG Music, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group.

A YouTube spokesman said: “We don't comment on proprietary or third-party technology.”

People close to the companies have suggested that Google had been reluctant to look at technology that could be viewed as a proactive content filter.

It was suggested that Google was concerned that pressure be proactive in identifying and removing illegal content could spill over into its massively lucrative search business if it started to use such technology on YouTube.

At present, Google reactively removes illegal content from its search results, if it is informed about it by outside parties. It has consistently maintained that it is not interested in pre-filtering search results.

According to the terms of the European directive that governs copyright law in the UK, YouTube is not obliged to police its users proactively. According to lawyers, if Google were to pre-filter content it could render itself liability for it under UK law.

Content owners have already reacted angrily to delays in building a system to identify pirated material on YouTube. Last month, Viacom demanded that all its content be stripped from the site, after months of negotiations aimed at hammering out a distribution deal collapsed.

Viacom's ultimatum covered about 100,000 bootlegged clips, including large amounts of material from its MTV and Comedy Central divisions.

In January, Twentieth Century Fox demanded that YouTube reveal details of an American user who posted episodes of 24 and The Simpsons on the site. The move by Twentieth Century Fox, which is also owned by News Corporation, underscored the increasingly fractious relationships between content owners and the video site.

YouTube records more than 100 million video downloads a day. Film studios, television companies and music labels, many of which now have commercial deals in place with YouTube, still argue that such volumes would be impossible if it were not for pirated material.

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