English Premier League sues YouTube over copyright

SAN FRANCISCO, May 4 (Reuters) - Plaintiffs including England's Premier League sued Google Inc.'s online-video sharing site YouTube on Friday for copyright infringment, marking the second big legal challenge to YouTube.

According to court documents filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the Football Association Premier League Ltd, 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.

"Defendants, which own and operate the Web site YouTube.com, have knowingly misappropriated and exploited this valuable property for their own gain without payment or license to the owners of the intellectual property," the lawsuit said.