The Premier League abandons action against YouTube for breach of copyright

The Premier League, the company that manages the English top tier division, has abandoned its prosecution against the U.S. broadcast and video-sharing platform YouTube, announced the British newspaper The Guardian, on the 11/11/2013.

The Premier League, the FFT (French Tennis Federation) and several music producers had collectively initiated copyright infringement proceedings in a court in New York (United States) against YouTube in 2007.

The plaintiffs accused YouTube of allowing users to post and share content on their platform, including images of games captured from TV broadcasts, without permission. The action followed that of the U.S. media group Viacom's $1 billion (€670 million at the time) claim against YouTube for the same reasons.

In May 2013, a New York judge rejected the proceedings brought by the Premier League and other parties, considering it "unrealistic" to deal with the complaint of each of the rights holders collectively.

• All parties involved, including YouTube, agreed to voluntarily abandon the procedure, and each will pay their own legal costs.
• The outcome of…