Class Action against YouTube and Google

A proposed class-action lawsuit alleging copyright infringement has been filed against YouTube and Google (the owner of YouTube since November of last year).

The proposed lawsuit was filed on May 4th by Football Association Premier League of England and the music publisher Bourne Co.

The companies allege that YouTube is slow to remove copyrighted material from its site, despite the fact that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act requires prompt removal of such materials.

They also allege that YouTube and Google should be using a filter system to ensure that copyrighted material isn’t posted in the first place. They say that YouTube already filters videos for certain content owners, but that it won’t provide the same service for other content owners.

The lead attorney thinks that this case may eventually be consolidated with a similar case filed by Viacom back in March. In that case, Viacom is alleging infringement on the part of YouTube and is seeking damages of over $1 billion.

Premier League and Bourne, co-filers of the initial complaint, are now actively seeking other content owners to join the proposed class action. For more information on the case and how to join, they’ve set up the website YouTube Class Action.

[Source: The Hollywood Reporter]