A coalition of major media and web companies issued a set of guidelines for handling copyright-protected videos on user-generated sites. However, YouTube was not part of the pact, as it just rolled out its own technology to filter copyrighted videos once they’ve been posted. Companies that did join on include Disney, Viacom, CBS Corp., NBCU, News Corp., Microsoft, MySpace, Veoh Networks and Dailymotion. The guidelines require sites to use filtering software that blocks all content media companies flag as being unauthorized from being posted without permission before they’re posted, not after. They also require websites to identify other sites that repeatedly try to upload unauthorized content and either block those sites or remove links to them. Internet companies will be required to have the technology in place by the end of the year.
