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08 May 2007
The FA Premier League has filed legal charges against YouTube owner Google over the "unauthorised and uncompensated" use of its creative and copyrighted works.
"Defendants are pursuing a deliberate strategy of engaging in, permitting, encouraging and facilitating massive copyright infringement on the YouTube website," the football organisation charged.
The Premier League is seeking class action status for its suit allowing it to join forces with other organisations and individual copyright owners whose works have appeared on YouTube without permission.
Independent music publisher Bourne is the first to join the class action suit.
Video from football games are hugely popular items on YouTube. Highlights from games typically show up within hours of the final whistle and videos from high profile matches consistently rank high on You tube's lists of most viewed items.
The lawsuit alleges that YouTube has "long been aware of this pattern of massive infringement yet purposefully refrains from employing readily available measures to curb it".
It further alleges that YouTube refuses to combat this unauthorised use because its entire business model is based on exploiting copyrighted materials without having to pay the owners.
The Premier League is demanding a permanent injunction preventing YouTube from displaying any more copyrighted materials, as well as unspecified damages.
Viacom launched the first major legal assault against YouTube in March for violating its copyrights. The company had ordered Google to remove 100,000 videos from YouTube for alleged copyright violations.
In an unrelated case, the government of Thailand plans to file legal charges against YouTube because it allows the distribution of video clips that insult King Bhumibol Adulyadej.
Thailand started blocking access to YouTube in April when a video on the site depicted the king next to a photograph which is considered gravely offensive.
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