Yesterday YouTube announced it has reached agreements with three companies whose software facilitates converting video and audio into digital files, a move that will assist in identifying clips almost immediately after a program or live event is aired or released. It will also ease the process when media companies upload content into the video site’s reference library of copyrighted material as well.

Near-instant recognition of clips as soon as they are uploaded should help content owners make easy cash from ads tacked on the video pages. YouTube noted that companies that monetized clips improperly uploaded — instead of demanding their immediate removal — on average doubled the number of streams they cashed in on.

So will media companies invite unauthorized uploaders to plunder away? Not quite — the ad revenue is not significant enough. However, many companies (excluding Viacom and its $1 billion copyright infringement suit) seem to be looking the other way when they’re pirated — the other way being the direction of the revenue check.

The right to the game in the U.S. and Canada belong to Hasbro, while Mattel has the right to the game throughout the rest of the world, reports Reuters.

A spokeswoman for Mattel in Britain stated “Letters have been sent to Facebook in the United States regarding the Scrabulous application. Mattel values its intellectual property and actively protects its brands and trademarks. As Mattel owns the rights to the Scrabble trademark outside the United States and Canada, we are currently reviewing our position regarding other countries.”

Attorney for Viacom Donald Verrilli said that the company is pleased with the initiative, but does not believe that the new technology is all Google will need to do. “We’d have been a lot happier if they’d put this in place when they launched,” said Verrilli.

He continued that the video-sharing site had a responsibility to track copyrighted material from the beginning as it is not only illegal, but the site gains profit from said material. “They have built a business on this infringement,” he said.

Google attorney, Philip Beck has been sticking to Google’s main argument that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s “fair harbor” provisions protect the company from copyright infringement, adding that the case is more complicated than simple copyright infringement.

Phil Beck of Bartlit Beck is considered one of the nation’s top trial lawyers, having represented the current-President Bush in 2000 in Florida during the election and the pharmaceutical company Merck during the Vioxx litigation. David Kramer of Wilson Sonsini is also on Google’s team.

The firms are expected to be reconvening in court on August 6th in New York City.