Media companies in copyright pact, Google absent

By Kenneth Li

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Viacom Inc, Walt Disney Co, Microsoft Corp and other media companies have agreed to a set of guidelines to protect copyrights online but Google Inc, owner of the Web's biggest video site, was notably absent from the pact.

The companies agreed to use technology to eliminate copyright-infringing content uploaded by Web users and to block any pirated material before it is publicly accessible.

"These principles offer a road map for unlocking the enormous potential of online video and user-generated content," Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger said in a statement issued by the participating companies.

Interest in online video has boomed over the last two years, putting media content owners at odds with Web sites that host videos when their users upload copyrighted material without permission.

Google and its YouTube video-sharing site, for example, face a $1 billion copyright infringement suit filed by Viacom.

The industry group also included News Corp's Fox and MySpace units, CBS Corp, General Electric Co's NBC Universal, and online video services such as Veoh Networks and Dailymotion.

"These principles will ... help balance the rights and responsibilities of both content owners and sites accepting user-generated content," CBS CEO Leslie Moonves said in the statement.

GOOGLE'S ROLE