Judge Tosses Some Copyright Damages Claims Against YouTube

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on July 8, 2009 - 9:21am.

New York - A federal judge has tossed some of the copyright-related claims of damages against Google's (NASD: GOOG) YouTube filed by a number of foreign rights owners. U.S. District Judge Louis Stanton ruled that statutory and punitive damages could not be claimed by the U.K.-based Football Association Premier League, as its copyrights were not registered in the U.S.

The league and other foreign plaintiffs may, however, sue for damages under a "live broadcast exemption" in the U.S. Copyright Act.

Other parties in the class action suit against YouTube include the U.S.-based National Music Publishers Association and Bob Tur, a videographer who captured images of the L.A. riots.

It's not clear that YouTube will benefit from Judge Stanton's ruling in those claims, as those plaintiffs presumably registered their copyrights in the U.S.

The ruling should not have any bearing on the $1 billion copyright infringement suit that media conglomerate Viacom filed against YouTube in 2007, which is still pending.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10281571-93.html

http://snipurl.com/mdxjo (DMW previous coverage)

http://i.zdnet.com/blogs/youtuberulling0707.pdf (PDF of ruling)