• Associated Press, Friday, October 20, 2006 12 PM

While big media in the U.S. considers the next steps it should take in partnering with YouTube, Google's newly acquired video asset, a consortium of media companies in Japan has demanded that the viral site remove some 30,000 video files containing copyrighted content.

The Japan Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers found that 29,549 files, from video clips to TV programs, music videos and movies, were posted on YouTube's site without permission. The group, acting on behalf of 23 Japanese TV stations, music and movie companies, has been monitoring the illegal use of copyrighted content on YouTube for the last month. The consortium's spokesperson said it was considering asking Google to implement a preliminary screening process to prevent such copyrighted material from being loaded on the site.

YouTube CEO Chad Hurley has said in the past that YouTube is hard at work devising a tagging system that would identify copyrighted material. For the time being, the loss of Japanese media won't hurt the new Google unit, which is currently focused on sealing deals with America's biggest media companies--but as YouTube, which has 72 million worldwide users, expands, it will need to pursue similar deals with Asian and European media companies.

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