Software sleuth hunts copyright abusers

By Michael Liedtke

Vance Ikezoye didn't set out to become one of the digital revolution's top copyright cops when he first began tinkering with the technology that launched Audible Magic Corp.

At first, all he was looking for was a better way to identify songs and advertisements broadcast on the radio.

But Ikezoye's ambitions have shifted with the media landscape, positioning Audible Magic to control what can and can't be watched on the Internet. Online video sites are adopting its filtering tools to prevent the kind of copyright trouble that provoked a legal battle between Viacom Inc. and Google Inc.'s YouTube.com.

"It's been an interesting ride," said Ikezoye, Audible Magic's 49-year-old chief executive.

"We are kind of in the middle of everything, where we are part mediator and part battering ram."


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