At least publicly, two of the four major labels appear to be on divergent paths when it comes to video-sharing giant YouTube.

Less than a week after Universal Music Group chief Doug Morris labeled YouTube and social networking site MySpace as "copyright infringers" that "owe us 10s of millions of dollars," Warner Music Group inked a deal with YouTube that will be make its catalog of music videos available on the fast-growing video-sharing site.

The deal gives YouTube legal access to videos from WMG artists like Madonna, Green Day, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Gnarls Barkley, T.I., Depeche Mode, James Blunt, Paul Simon, and Eric Clapton. Videos from many of those artists have long been available on YouTube without Warner's consent, having been uploaded by users.

Under the terms of the deal, Warner will distribute music videos, behind-the-scenes footage, artist interviews, and original programming on YouTube, and YouTube users will be able to incorporate music from Warner's catalog into the videos they create and upload. The companies will share advertising revenue from both music videos uploaded by the artist and user uploaded videos that incorporate audio and audiovisual works from Warner's catalog.

"Partnering with Warner Music Group is one of the most significant milestones for our company and our community and shifts the paradigm in this new media movement," YouTube CEO Chad Hurley said in a statement. "By providing a new distribution opportunity, we are paving the way for media companies to harness the vast financial potential of user-generated content on YouTube. We are thrilled that WMG had the vision to be the first music company, in partnership with its artists, to support the use of their content within user videos and to allow our community to interact with WMG music in new creative ways."

To monitor video uploads of music videos and other content that potentially infringes on copyright, YouTube said today that it is developing a new advanced-content identification and royalty-reporting system.

The deal had reportedly been in the works for quite some time, as the parties had connected to create one of the first YouTube "brand channels" around the launch of Paris Hilton's debut album, Paris.

"Technology is changing entertainment, and Warner Music is embracing that innovation," Warner Music Group CEO Edgar Bronfman, Jr., said in a statement. "Consumer-empowering destinations like YouTube have created a two-way dialogue that will transform entertainment and media forever."

As indicated by Morris' comments, YouTube is seen as both a major boon to the music industry and as a Napster-like infringer of copyrights. But given its vast popularity--more than 100 million videos are viewed on the site every day--the company is reportedly in talks with each of the labels about how to capture ad revenue from it.