Redmond's attempted YouTube killer, MSN SoapBox, has returned, after having slipped back into to Private Beta in March. Microsoft claimed that they pulled the plug on SoapBox to find a way to protect the intellectual property rights of content owners who might find their material on the video sharing site. Now the site has been retooled and re-launched, sporting a gray and black design, much improved over the "thousand shades of Microsoft blue" that adorned the previous incarnation. And the color scheme is all that's changed.

Under the hood, Microsoft has embedded digital fingerprinting technology from IT services company, Audible Magic, delivering content owners a set of tools for discovering their property on the site and having it immediately removed, if need be. The service could be a boon at a time when Microsoft is looking for any way to one-up YouTube in the battle for the public's attention, and could mean that more content owners may with SoapBox to provide video, knowing they can more easily have copyrighted material removed.

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