Media Giants Harmonise Over Online Copyright

A coalition of nine of the world's leading media companies today struck a cooperation pact aimed at cracking down on people who infringe copyright on the internet - with Google conspicuously absent.

Microsoft, Walt Disney, Viacom and Rupert Murdoch's Fox Networks have pledged to use hi-tech filtering software to block uploads of any movies, television clips and music that are restricted by copyright.

The popular video-sharing websites Daily motion and Veoh are signatories, as are MySpace, CBS and NBC.

All have agreed that to keep personal details for 60 days of everyone uploading content to their sites - and to share the names and IP addresses of anyone caught infringing intellectual property.

But Google, the owner of the world's biggest video sharing website YouTube, is absent. So are a handful of other major players including Time Warner.

Television companies in particular - including the BBC - have waged a long battle to prevent clips from popular shows such as 24, The Daily Show and Top Gear from appearing free of charge on-line.

Philippe Dauman, president of Viacom, which owns channels such as MTV and Nickelodeon, said: "We are delighted that so many leading companies have come together behind a set of principles that provide a framework for intellectual property to live in harmony with technical advances."

He said the agreement would enable "innovation" to continue by safeguarding the value of artistic creations.

Several of the participants, including Viacom, have sued Google over unauthorized clips on YouTube. Google executives have argued privately that technological innovation to identify problem clips is a better long-term solution in tackling the problem than industry-wide agreements.

In a statement, YouTube's director of engineering, Jeremy Doig, said: "We appreciate ideas from the various media companies on effective content identification technologies.

"We're glad that they recognize the need to cooperate on these issues, and we'll keep working with them to refine our industry-leading tools."

Under the pact, participants have agreed that as long as members follow all the guidelines, they will not hold each other responsible when copyright infringements occur.

The move puts public pressure on Google. James McQuivey, an analyst at Forrester Research, said: "The pressure on Google to go along with this cooperative initiative will be intense, as the fate of existing lawsuits will likely hinge on Google's acceptance of the common solution."