Porn websites can use a “private publishing” flaw in Google's services that allows them to store infringing content for free. Everyone knows that there are some pirated videos on YouTube, but there is an even greater concern for the right owners, because streaming websites now use Google as a hosting provider. All it takes is uploading videos on YouTube without publicly publishing them on the service – instead, they embed “private” direct links to these videos on their own websites.

As a result, these videos are stored at GoogleVideo.com domain and are streamed directly from there without being listed on YouTube, thus effectively bypassing the Content-ID takedown system. Porn sites use this trick as well, despite the fact that YouTube doesn’t allow people to upload porn. Such embedded videos can be found on many streaming websites and it’s hard to take them down. Although the infringing content is eventually removed, the process can take up to 3 weeks. This is why copyright owners urge YouTube to plug this hole instead of removing the videos.

Of course, this is a common problem, not just that of YouTube or porn content. The Google flaw is also used by many other streaming websites. According to the company’s Transparency Report, Google receives tens of thousands of notices for the Googlevideo.com domain. This is a cheap way for pirate streaming services to store videos, although they have many alternatives these days. Some industry experts believe that YouTube could be the largest pirate service of all now, and the backdoor in question contributes to such a status.

Thanks to TorrentFreak for providing the source of the article.