What is YouTube's Content ID?

Content ID is YouTube's CMS Dashboard. YouTube fingerprints every video uploaded to the site using heatmaps and by storing any audio.

The fingerprint can tell if an original video has been flipped; the colours changed, cropped or stretched; and also can tell whether audio has been sped up, slowed down or otherwise manipulated.

Using this information, claims are able to be generated against all User Generated Content (UGC).