The first four episodes of this season's "24" were available on YouTube and LiveDigital a week before they first went to air in the U.S. - highlighting the struggle television networks and movie houses face against piracy.

The news comes as Google strikes a deal with Digital Music Group to host more than 4000 hours of classic television shows including "I Spy" and "Gumby". As part of the DMG deal, YouTube will use filters to block users from uploading videos containing songs for which DMG controls the rights.

YouTube is struggles to satisfy media groups demanding it pull down copyrighted material. Viacom recently demanded YouTube remove more than 100,000 video clips after the two firms failed to reach a distribution deal. YouTube will also post warnings in Japanese against uploading copyrighted materials after negotiations with a leading Japanese copyright lobby group.{moscomment}