Group offers copyright rules for websites

LOS ANGELES - A coalition of major media and Internet companies yesterday issued a set of guidelines for handling copyright-protected videos on large user-generated sites such as MySpace.

Conspicuously absent was Google Inc., whose YouTube website this week rolled out its own technology to filter copyrighted videos once they've been posted. Media companies Walt Disney Co., Viacom Inc., CBS Corp., NBC Universal, and News Corp. joined Internet companies Microsoft Corp., MySpace, Veoh Networks, and Dailymotion to issue the guidelines, which would require sites to use filtering technology to block copyrighted clips from being posted without permission.

The incentive for coalition websites and others to comply is the media companies' promise not to sue if any copyrighted material sneaks past their best efforts to block it.

"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," NBC Universal president and chief executive Jeff Zucker said in a statement.

The guidelines, which do not apply to search engines, e-mail, or browsers, are designed for sites that host user-generated clips.