The English Football Association is suing Google's YouTube for copyright infringement. Legal documents show that the Football Association Premier League Ltd is taking legal action along with music publisher Bourne Co.
The documents were filed in the US District Court of the Southern District of New York. They simply add to Google's woes; its legal wranglings with media giant Viacom are still ongoing.
YouTube is deliberately allowing users to infringe on its copyright by uploading footage of Premiership football to the site, the FA lawsuit says.
"Defendants, which own and operate the website YouTube.com, have knowingly misappropriated and exploited this valuable property for their own gain without payment or licence to the owners of the intellectual property."
Penalty appeals
In response to the FA's legal assault, Kent Walker at Google responded: "These suits simply misunderstand the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which balances the rights of copyright holders against the need to protect internet communications and content.
"They threaten the way people legitimately exchange information, news, entertainment, and political and artistic expression over the internet," he said.
Viacom is suing YouTube for similar reasons, and is demanding the video giant pay it £500m in damages.
One thing's for sure, this is not the last suit that'll be filed against Google and YouTube, and it's going to be a long time before it's all resolved. The law is obviously unclear and until one case is used to set the precedent, no one can really say which side the axe will fall.
