Plaintiffs have sued Google Incorporated"s YouTube for copyright infringement, the second such legal challenge to the popular video site in two months. According to court documents filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the Football Association Premier League Limited and music publisher Bourne Company sued YouTube, charging the video sharing site for "knowingly misappropriated and exploited this valuable property for their own gain without payment or license to the owners of the intellectual property. In the meantime, the Premier League has been forced to send time-consuming and ineffectual notices of infringement to YouTube." Lawyers for the Premier League said YouTube provided access to a tool against copyright infringement, but charged that it was "fraught" with problems and that YouTube should do more. The lawsuit also demanded a court-ordered injunction to prohibit the defendants from continuing to violate various copyright protection laws and unspecified monetary damages.
Google general counsel Kent Walker replied in a statement: "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, Walker said, referring to the 1998 U.S. law governing the rights of content owners and Internet service providers. They threaten the way people legitimately exchange information, news, entertainment, and political and artistic expression over the Internet."