Posted by Barlow Keener

The  Football v YouTube action was reported immediately by Reuters on May 4, 2007.  In a new twist, the plaintiffs created a web site specifically for the lawsuit.   The plaintiffs in the case are England’s soccer club Football Association Premier League Ltd and the Bourne Company, an indie music producer.  The suit alleged that YouTube willfully and deliberately encouraged copyright violations to increase traffic to the site.  The Complaint sited the song “Inka Dinka Doo” (made famous by Jimmy Durante as shown in this YouTube video) as one of the copyrighted materials.

YouTube was provided with a blocking tool by the soccer league which YouTube was alleged to have used unsuccessfully.   One other item of note, is that this is not an ordinary “corporate” lawsuit of one company v another company.  The plaintiffs are the first of many in a class action.   The plaintiffs are represented by two niche focused litigation firms: the media firm Proskauer Rose LLP and the class action firm Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann LLP.