YouTube has announced that it is in the process of removing the 15-minute time length restriction imposed on videos. While the limit has, so far, only been lifted with a few special content partners like National Geographic and Lonelygirl15 (a channel which apparently still has viewers), it should pave the way for longer videos for all moving forward. So, why the change now after years of limits? Joshua Siegel, a product manager at YouTube told The New York Times that the company now has copyright issues under control via ContentID, which scans roughly 100 years worth of uploaded video per day in an attempt to fend off violations. There’s no word on when the time limit will be further lifted, but for now, you can at least finally check out epic, full length National Geographic videos on YouTube (one of which we’ve linked below). YouTube lifting 15-minute time limit for some videos originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 10 Dec 2010 02:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink