Microsoft Gets Off Its Soapbox

In a surprising announcement, Microsoft has temporarily shut down access to its video sharing site. Still operating in public beta, Soapbox was poised to be Microsoft’s answer to YouTube in the real of user generated and submitted video.

After entering an alliance with News Corp. and NBC, however, Microsoft is perhaps moving Soapbox further down on its list of priorities.

The official word coming out of Redmond is that the site was closed down until the Soapbox team could develop better measures of detecting and purging copyrighted content. Some would have you believe that Microsoft is taking the moral high ground with a move like, but there are other factors to consider here.

CNET’s Soapbox come back anytime soon. And when it does, expect it to be locked down tighter than Fort Knox.