After almost four months of nonstop talk, it appears that YouTube has licensed copyright filtering technology from AudibleMagic. The San Jose Mercury News reports that Google will soon unveil the filtering technology as its solution to problems with copyrighted material. So, what happened to Google's internal efforts on filtering?

TechCrunch is trying to figure out what happened:

What does this mean? It means that the months of assurances that YouTube had copyright filtering technology in development and about to be implemented were either a ruse to buy time or a failed effort that has collapsed under pressure today.

Ten days ago it was announced that MySpace has licensed AudibleMagic’s filtering technology for copyright protection. The huge question that everyone asked was -- what does this mean for YouTube? While reactions ranged from waiting with baited breath for a mystery technology to accusations of mafia-like behavior on YouTube's part -- the truth may be something far more mundane. YouTube was arguably never a technology company in the first place.

YouTube has had a rough month. The media and the market have both turned up the heat over continued issues with copyright violations and I suspect this move was done out of necessity -- i.e., sign a deal now in the hopes that it will make this issue go away.

Will AudibleMagic solve all of YouTube's problems? And if it works, what will happen to YouTube's traffic? Do you think YouTube has a future without the ability to post clips of copyrighted material, like TV shows or movies?