Microsoft Joins Effort to Protect Web Content

Oct 19, 09:29 AM

Current Headlines: By Bloomberg News

Microsoft Corp., Walt Disney Co., CBS Corp. and other technology and media companies agreed on principles to prevent the unauthorized use of copyrighted videos by Internet users.

The companies said in a statement Thursday they agreed to use technology that eliminates files posted on Web sites without permission. General Electric Co.'s NBC Universal unit, News Corp.'s Fox and MySpace units, Viacom Inc., Veoh Networks Inc. and Dailymotion SA support the initiative.

Google Inc., which is being sued by Viacom for copyright infringement on its YouTube video-sharing site, isn't part of the group. Media companies, seeking to increase revenue from online advertising, are stepping up efforts to prevent Web sites they don't own from using unauthorized content.

The group also agreed to identify and remove links to sites that are mostly using content without permission.

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