(AMES, Iowa) – It’s all a part of the average college student’s routine — WebMail, Facebook and then YouTube. These common distractions are what keep students going throughout the day. Recent copyright issues, however, may turn free video clips into highly censored ones that require a copyright.

“I have always enjoyed looking up my favorite music or watching a brief clip,” said Annika Tunberg, freshman in pre-business. “I think requiring a copyright is a logical idea, but I think that it will limit the videos and music available.”

Numerous companies are in the process of finding effective ways to develop better video filters to catch clips without copyrights. Many video and music clips are being downloaded to Web sites like YouTube and MySpace without a copyright.

Guba, a video-sharing site based in San Francisco, has created a method that creates digital signatures of copyrighted materials.

This means, according to a News.com article, the new technology will recognize a clip even if the video has been coded in a different format or the length has been altered.

As of Monday, MySpace began its effort to eliminate unauthorized music from reaching its site. The company agreed to deal with Gracenote, an online music database, after only three days, said Jim Hollingsworth, Gracenote’s senior vice president of sales and marketing.

According to the article, MySpace is using Gracenote in order to identify waveforms unique to every digital recording.

The system requires only a few seconds’ worth of music to recognize it and distinguish whether a song is copyrighted.

Gracenote scans music downloaded to MySpace and cross checks songs with those in the company’s 10 million-song database, Hollingsworth said.

“I think that this will make it difficult for small, undiscovered bands to get exposure like many have through sites like MySpace in the past,” said Peter Terwilliger, freshman in pre-architecture.

Eventually all the music MySpace provides will be copyrighted.

Some companies, such as Photobucket and Revver, are relying on people to look at each frame uploaded to their sites to check for copyrights.

The goal is to ultimately prohibit video and music clips from being displayed online without having a copyright.

“We’re going to ensure that this site doesn’t cheat content creators out of one cent,” said Steven Starr, CEO of Revver. “Nothing goes on our site unless someone has taken a look at it.”