RFE&M Attorney Quoted on the Football Association Premier League Ltd. and Bourne Co. v. YouTube, Inc., YouTube LLC and Google, Inc. Case

May 6, 2007 – The Independent

Rothwell, Figg, Ernst & Manbeck attorney Brian Banner was quoted by The Independent, a British publication, on Football Association Premier League Ltd. and Bourne Co. v. YouTube, Inc., YouTube LLC and Google, Inc., a class action, copyright infringement lawsuit filed in the Southern District of New York.

The Premier League, which owns the combined TV, radio and internet rights to Premier League soccer games and highlights, and auctions these broadcast rights for billions of pounds, claims that YouTube has exploited copyrighted footage it does not own and deliberately used the material to draw people to its website. YouTube was started in early 2005 and became known for its posting of amateur videos. YouTube’s popularity led to its purchase by Google in November of 2006. YouTube has entered agreements with several media companies to provide video clips, but not with others, such as Viacom, which filed a copyright infringement complaint against YouTube last year. Google claims that it is protected by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which shields sites such as YouTube from responsibility for the posting of copyrighted content. Media companies are frustrated by the law’s requirement that they provide notice of infringement following every appearance of copyrighted material, especially because videos often reappear after being removed.

• Brian Banner, a lawyer at the American firm Rothwell Figg Ernst & 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.”

For more information, please contact Brian Banner at 202-783-6040 or bbanner@rfem.com.

Link to full article:
http://news.independent.co.uk/media/article2516759.ece