Microsoft is locking down its video-sharing site, Soapbox, limiting membership so it can create better safeguards against pirated content. After Viacom announced its $1 billion lawsuit against YouTube, Microsoft appears to have decided its video sharing site offered too juicy a target.

Here’s Microsoft’s statement on the changes:

Dear Soapbox users,

Thanks for helping us test the Soapbox on MSN Video beta ‚Äì we‚Äôve really appreciated the feedback we‚Äôve gotten from our user community about the service. In order to grow and implement some important new features , Soapbox temporarily requires you to login using your Windows Live ID before you can watch or upload videos. If you don’t have a Soapbox account, we’ll be opening the doors again very soon with some cool new stuff to try. Thanks for your patience as we continue to build the best place to ‚Äúmake your statement‚Äù on the web.

The Soapbox on MSN Video Team

Viacom’s suit against YouTube, while called frivolous by some analysts, is forcing video sharing sites to adopt policies to deal more effectively with the sharing of copyrighted content.

via ZDNet