October 19, 2007 – (HOSTSEARCH.COM) – A group of media companies including Walt Disney, Viacom Inc., Microsoft Corporation, and News Corporation, owners of MySpace, have come out in support of a set of guidelines intended to help control copyright-protected videos on the Internet, it was announced recently. Although according to a statement the guidelines are not legally binding, the companies plan to adopt and adhere to them before the end of 2007.
The new guidelines focus on the use of technology to filter copyrighted videos. Web sites hosting uploaded video content would use the technology, which recognizes unauthorized clips before they go online and are available to the public. In addition, the media companies supporting the guidelines would agree not to bring legal action against web sites engaging the guidelines in cases where videos manage to avoid the restrictions and do go live.
"Today's announcement marks a significant step in transforming the Internet from a Wild West to a popular medium that respects the rule of law," Jeff Zucker, CEO of NBC Universal, was reported as saying.
Although YouTube, the biggest player in the online video arena, has yet to formally throw its support behind the guidelines, earlier this week the company initiated technology to filter copyrighted materials from its servers. It is worthy of note that Viacom, one of the participating companies, was involved in legal action against YouTube, suing the owners Google for $1 billion for hosting videos of its programs without permission.
