The Guardian Jumps On YouTube Footy Bandwave

Several weeks ago, the Premier League and the company they employed named NetResult came down hard on the owner of 101greatgoals blog with a threatening letter warning the blogger to remove links to goal highlights on YouTube.The blogger ignored the demands and has continued linking to highlights of football action. Now, in an interesting twist, The Guardian blog has written an article about some of the best sporting moments and included several links to YouTube. Plus it has encouraged readers to submit their own favorite links (as this blog entry was written, The Guardian had 125 comments from the public).To view the Guardian’s YouTube highlight collection, go here.But the question for the Premier League and NetResult is whether they have a double standard. Do they purposefully threaten bloggers but not apply the same policies to large media organizations such as The Guardian?Of course, the whole thing is silly because there’s no way to police the videos on YouTube. The only way for the Premier League and NetResult to control the issue of unlicensed Premiership video highlights being available on YouTube is to threaten YouTube. And even if YouTube can find a way to limit the videos, there are always hundreds of other similar video sites out there.