In a landmark decision, a US district court has ruled in favor of YouTube in a copyright infringement case where the Premier League sued YouTube in 2007.
The court case dragged on for three years. In it, the New York district judge ruled that “YouTube was protected by US legislation which says a service provider isn’t liable for infringement if it removes material from its site when notified by the copyright owner.”
The Premier League argued that copyrighted material was being illegally uploaded and viewed on YouTube. As of press time, the Premier League had not announced whether it would appeal the decision.
For any die-hard Premier League fan, we know that YouTube does an excellent job at removing goal highlights within minutes. While the decision doesn’t change anything for fans of Premier League clubs, it may discourage the Premier League from using such heavy-handed legal tactics in the future.
Instead of targeting YouTube, the Premier League needs to create a video-on-demand system which will allow soccer fans worldwide to legally view goal highlights minutes after goals are scored.
