14 DAY TRIAL // YouTube has always been a controversial service because the users were allowed to upload any type of content on the official page while any other visitor was able to access it in a matter of seconds. That's why the real owner of the videos often sued Google for copyright infringement, accusing the Mountain View company of not making any effort to block the content. A few months ago, the English Premier League, the main soccer competition in the country, sued Google after several clips appeared on the website without their authorization. At that time, the music publisher Bourne & Co joined the lawsuit, accusing Google for the same matter.
This week, those two organizations announced that other eight firms joined the lawsuits after the Mountain View company infringed their copyright through the YouTube video sharing platform. Among the ones included in the legal matter, we can mention the National Music Publishers' Association, the Rugby Football League and the Finnish Football League Association, according to Reuters.
"The clear and growing message to YouTube and Google is simple: their callous and opportunistic business model is contrary to right, contrary to law, and must and will be stopped," Premier League spokesman Dan Johnson said in a statement for Reuters.
Every time, the search giant defended itself with the DMCA act which states that YouTube is not responsible for the content uploaded on the official page of the product since all the videos are published by the users of the service. "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," the Google representatives said in May according to the same source.
As you might have heard, the media giant Viacom also sued Google for copyright infringement, requiring no less than $1 billion in damages due to several videos published on the online video sharing platform YouTube.