• The New York Times, Monday, September 6, 2010 9:44 PM

In the past, Lions Gate, which owns the rights to the "Mad Men" clip, might have requested that any episodes run on YouTube be taken down. But it has decided to leave clips like this up, and in return, YouTube runs ads with the video and splits the revenue with Lions Gate. More than one-third of the 2 billion views of YouTube videos with ads each week are uploaded without the copyright owner's permission but left up by the owner's choice. They are automatically recognized by YouTube, using a system called Content ID that scans videos and compares them to material provided by copyright owners.

But it's enough to turn YouTube profitable this year, analysts say. "YouTube is a big component of our display revenue, and display is our next big business," Eric E. Schmidt, Google's chief executive, said in an interview. Analysts say YouTube will bring in around $450 million in revenue this year and earn a profit.

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