Battle of the heavyweights in latest YouTube challenge

E-Brief News reports that the English Football Association Premier League which is tasked with running one of the most lucrative championships in the world, has filed suit in New York against the video-sharing site. Once again, YouTube stands accused of enabling its users to violate copyright law. On the same day, in California, NBC Universal and Viacom filed a friend-of-the-court brief in support of journalist Bob Tur, who previously accused YouTube of infringing on his copyrighted material by posting a video he shot during the 1992 Los Angeles riots without his permission. According to court documents filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, the Football Association Premier League, better known as the English Premier League, and music publisher Bourne Co, sued YouTube. The lawsuit charges that YouTube deliberately encourages massive copyright infringement on its Web site to generate public attention and boost traffic. This has resulted in the loss of valuable content, the complaint said. The Washington Post notes that the complaint echoes accusations made in March by media conglomerate Viacom, which filed a similar suit against YouTube and Google for over $1bn in damages. The latest lawsuit seeks a court-ordered injunction to prohibit the defendants from continuing to violate various copyright protection laws and unspecified monetary damages. ITWire reports that the suit further alleges \'feigned blindness\' on the defendants\' part, and that they \'deliberately refrained from implementing readily available technical measures to prevent infringement\' as that would reduce their audience. As in the Viacom case, the English Premier League and Bourne allege that YouTube claims to actively police content for offensive or pornographic material, but refuses to do the same for copyright infringement. Full report in The Washington Post Full ITWire report Listen to a CNET News podcast on the issue

And to add to TouTube\'s woes, the Thai Government said it may bring charges against the site for insulting the country’s revered king. The Thai Information and Communications Technology Ministry on Monday confirmed that it has set up a committee to proceed with a lawsuit against YouTube for displaying a video clip that showed an image of King Bhumibol Adulyadej next to a photograph of feet, which is considered deeply offensive in Thailand. According to a Forbes.com report, the 44-second clip was posted by an anonymous user on March 29. The Thai Government blocked access to YouTube in Thailand on April 4. Since the first clip, more satirical videos mocking the king, such as images altered to make him resemble a monkey, have appeared on the video-sharing portal. The charge of lese majeste, or insulting the monarchy, is a serious crime in Thailand which could put the responding executive for YouTube behind bars for up to 15 years, were he to set foot in the country. CNET News reports that analysts believe that not even an angry king poses as much of a threat to YouTube as repeated accusations that it enables the theft of intellectual property. \'Everybody became so enamoured of YouTube very quickly,\' said Josh Martin, an analyst with the Yankee Group. \'Very few people looked at the copyright issue from a business perspective.\' Martin wrote a report last June that predicted YouTube could become mired in the same legal morass that hobbled music file-sharing service Napster in the late \'90s (a legal music service now operates under the Napster name). \'I\'m just surprised it took so long,\' Martin said. Full Forbes.com report Full CNET News report

In other developments, Turkish lawmakers adopted a law last week allowing the state to block access to YouTube and other Internet sites that are deemed to insult the country\'s founder. According to a report on the iafrica.com site, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who proclaimed modern day Turkey in 1923 on the ashes of the Islamic Ottoman Empire, is seen as a national hero by secular Turks in the mainly Muslim country and his legacy is protected under a special law. In March, the country\'s largest telecommunications provider, Turk Telekom, blocked access to YouTube on a court order over a clip that allegedly insulted him. Full report on the iafrica.com site