Premier League soccer sues YouTube over copyright

By Michael Kahn and Eric Auchard

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Plaintiffs including the Premier League sued Google Inc.'s YouTube on Friday 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 Ltd, better known as the 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.

Google declined to comment. YouTube officials said they were working on a comment.

The complaint echoes accusations made in March by media conglomerate Viacom Inc., which filed a similar suit against YouTube and Google for over $1 billion (500 million pounds) in damages.

Google has denied those claims and said the Viacom suit threatens the way people legitimately exchange information and entertainment on the Web.

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.