Premier League joins media giant in suing YouTube over 'stolen' film clips

For football fans who haven't shelled out for a subscription to a sports channel or fallen asleep on the couch before their team's game is featured on Match of the Day, YouTube has provided the perfect - albeit unofficial - catch-up service.

Supporters have been logging on and watching match highlights at their convenience. Last weekend, a clip of nearly every Premiership goal was uploaded to the site by fans, and many from the lower divisions and Scottish leagues as well.

But, as internet users enjoy the action on their laptops, the Premier League, which rakes in billions of pounds by auctioning the rights to broadcast live matches and highlights in exclusive screening deals, launched plans to sue for copyright infringement.

It started legal action in the US District Court in New York claiming unspecified damages and accusing YouTube Inc and its corporate parent company, Google, of exploiting material it does not own.

The league also alleged that the website had deliberately used the copyrighted footage to draw people to the site and boost interest. The American music publisher Bourne is bringing a similar case.

Google warned that the case could set a precedent about how the internet is run and said the Premier League's lawsuit was an attack on the freedom to communicate over the web and, ultimately, on "artistic expression".

YouTube began life in early 2005 and became known for amateur videos of people messing about with exploding bottles of fizzy drinks and cats opening fridge doors. Its phenomenal popularity led Google to buy it last November for £833m.

The football clips are largely put together by fans from official footage and uploaded into segments rarely longer than five minutes. Picture and sound quality varies. Screening football, particularly the top league in England, which a large share of the world's best-known players have made home, is big business and the league feels it has to step in wherever its lucrative broadcast contracts may be undermined.

The combined TV, radio and internet rights to show live Premier League games and highlights over the next three years fetched £2.7bn worldwide. Court documents said: "Defendants, which own and operate the website YouTube.com, have knowingly misappropriated and exploited this valuable property for their own gain without payment or licence to the owners of the intellectual property."

Google's general counsel, Kent Walker, said: "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. They threaten the way people legitimately exchange information, news, entertainment and political and artistic expression."

Brian Banner, a lawyer at the American firm Rothwell, Figg, Ernst and Manbeck, which deals with high-profile intellectual property cases, said: "I think it was inevitable. A lot of people were looking for ways to stop YouTube from doing what it is doing but just couldn't afford to do it yet."

The media giant Viacom began a similar lawsuit last year which has yet to be resolved, claiming hundreds of thousands of copyrighted clips had been left on the site without permission. Several media companies have cut deals to supply YouTube with clips.

But the Premier League and Bourne said their plan to prosecute was on behalf of themselves and "thousands of others" whose copyrighted works have allegedly appeared on YouTube.com without permission.

A league statement said sending "time-consuming and ineffectual notices of infringement to YouTube" had not solved the problem.

YouTube, from launch to lawsuits

February 2005

YouTube founded by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim.

December 2005

YouTube website makes debut on worldwide web.

July 2006

YouTube confirmed as one of the world's fastest- growing sites, with 100 million clips viewed daily and 455,000 new bits of footage uploaded a month.

October 2006

Universal Music Group agrees to provide content to YouTube but announces new technology to search out copyrighted material being used unfairly.

November 2006

Google closes deal worth £883m to buy YouTube.

December 2006

Viacom launches £500m lawsuit claiming more than 200,000 unauthorised clips left on the site in breach of copyright.

January 2007

Brazilian footballer Ronaldo's ex-girlfriend takes out lawsuit against YouTube over a papparazo video of her.

March 2007

Site temporarily suspended in Turkey after complaints about anti-Turkish videos.

May 2007

Premier League launches lawsuit over unauthorised use of football footage.