Securities: Wave of Lawsuits Hits YouTube

YouTube's legal troubles have begun: last week, the Football Association Premier League, England's most prestigious soccer organization, filed a lawsuit against the company, as did NBC Universal and Viacom. Thailand's government reportedly is considering a lawsuit against YouTube for displaying a video that is dangerous to the country's monarch. Analysts, however, say that the biggest threat against YouTube is that the website facilitates theft of intellectual property.

Legal Troubles Mount For YouTube

Prior to the lawsuits filed last week, only Tur and Viacom had filed patent lawsuit infringement claims against YouTube. While the lawsuits against YouTube are mounting, it still hasn't been decided if the video-sharing site should be held accountable for post-pirated videos. YouTube says that it's protected from culpability by the Safe Harbor provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Kent Walker, Google's general counsel, said in an email, "These suits simply misunderstand the (DMCA), which balances the rights of copyright holders against the need to protect Internet communications. As a result, they threaten the way people legitimately exchange information."