San Francisco - A group of media and technology firms has worked out a set of guidelines for protecting copyrights on the Internet, that include using antipiracy technologies to remove infringing content, and block copyrighted materials from being uploaded before they are publicly accessible, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

Companies involved include media firms CBS, NBC Universal, Disney, Fox and Viacom, and technology companies including Microsoft, MySpace and video-sharing sites Dailymotion and Veoh Networks.

Google, which owns the YouTube video site, is not currently part of the group but has been in talks about joining, The Journal reported.

Earlier this week, Google unveiled a copyright protection system on YouTube, but unlike this group's guidelines, that system does not block copyrighted files from being uploaded but rather provides tools for their quick removal.

Potential partner Viacom still has a $1 billion copyright suit against Google and YouTube pending in court.

Related Links:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119269788721663302.html