YouTube’s defeat of copyright owners is final in Premier League case

[shamu726]

Copyright owners fail to obtain class action status, agree to dismissal.

The English Premier League and fellow plaintiffs, in a copyright infringement lawsuit filed against YouTube in 2007, have given up.

"[A]ll remaining plaintiffs, through counsel, hereby stipulate to the dismissal with prejudice of all their claims asserted in this action, with each party to bear its own costs, expenses and attorneys' fees," the English football league and fellow plaintiffs wrote in a filing in US District Court in Southern New York that ended the case last Thursday.

The dismissal comes six months after the case's judge ruled that the copyright owners could not be granted class action status. As we noted in a previous story, "the English Premier League, French Tennis Federation, and various music publishers sued the Google-owned YouTube in 2007 'on behalf of themselves and all others similarly situated,' and in 2010 formally asked to be certified as a class. The proposed class would contain people or entities whose copyrighted work was posted on YouTube on or after April 15, 2005 without their permission."

Judge Louis Stanton refused to certify the proposed class, saying it would create a "Frankenstein monster posing as a class action."

A report yesterday in The Guardian said, "The Premier League refused to comment but is likely to refocus its attention on taking legal action against live streaming websites that present an obvious threat to its broadcasting revenues."

Although the case was focused on stopping unauthorized uploads of Premier League matches, it apparently prevented the teams themselves from using YouTube to show gameplay video. "The move [to drop the case] is likely to lead to clubs being able to use the platform to show delayed highlights of their matches on their own YouTube channels," The Guardian wrote. "While the court case was ongoing they had been prevented from showing any on-pitch action and limited to behind-the-scenes videos and interviews."

YouTube also won a copyright case filed against it by Viacom, but it's still being appealed.

In a statement sent to Ars, Google said, "We’re glad that the Premier League and the remaining plaintiffs agreed to dismiss their copyright claims against YouTube. Our focus is on building a great platform for our many content partners who earn revenue from YouTube, and the billion people who enjoy their videos.”

Source: Ars Technica

[Reefa]

A report yesterday in The Guardian said, "The Premier League refused to comment but is likely to refocus its attention on taking legal action against live streaming websites that present an obvious threat to its broadcasting revenues

Ye massive threat pfff..Easier targets more like :pissed: