The English Premier League has launched a class action lawsuit in the US against YouTube for alleged copyright infringement.
Also: NBC Universal supports YouTube lawsuit | MySpace acquires Photobucket | Fear of Google (FOG) is official | US Presidential candidates make Google HQ a campaign trail priority | Windows Live Hotmail launches globally
The lawsuit, filed in a federal court in New York, has been filed in conjunction with music publisher Bourne.
According to the complaint filed to the court the "defendants are pursuing a deliberate strategy of engaging in, permitting, encouraging, and facilitating massive copyright infringement on the YouTube website".
A website has been launched - www.youtubeclassaction.com - to attract the "thousands of others whose copyrighted works have appeared on YouTube.com without permission" with the goal of prosecuting the case as a class action.
The lawsuit seeks an injunction to prohibit Google-owned YouTube from displaying copyrighted material and"unspecified damages" for past copyright violations.
To add to this NBC Universal has taken sides with Viacom over a piracy lawsuit against YouTube, according to Reuters.
The case in question involves a separate party, Los Angeles News Service operator Robert Tur, who sued YouTube for allowing its users to appropriate his famous footage of trucker Reginald Denny being beaten during the 1992 Los Angeles riots.
In a filing submitted late on Friday to the U.S. District Court of the Central District of California, NBC Universal and Viacom submitted a "friend of the court brief" opposing YouTube's bid to dismiss the copyright infringement suit brought by Tur.
NBC Universal is not suing YouTube itself, but it is yet another voice of dissent against the way the video-sharing website operates.
Viacom is pursuing its own copyright infringement suit against YouTube for over $1 billion in damages.
MySpace has acquired Photobucket for around $300m
The News Corp-owned social networking website and the phot and video hosting site had been feuding with MySpace blocking Photobucket videos from being posted on its website because for carrying ads.
Techcrunch has taken a look at this acquisition from an analytics point-of-view and makes an interesting point.
According to the post: Photobucket deal will bring very few new customers to MySpace because of the nearly 100% overlap in users.
"Nielsen/Netratings says MySpace has 55.9 million monthly unique visitors, compared to Photobucket's 14.7 million. Combined though, the sites will have just 57.7 million unique visitors.
That means just just 1.8 million of Photobucket's visitors don't currently visit MySpace, too. That's a 3% gain for MySpace. If you count just new users, MySpace is paying $167 for each one of them.
Comscore tells a similar story, showing that 77% of Photobucket's users are also visiting MySpace regularly."
Microsoft has announced the global launch of Windows Live Hotmail in 36 languages
The product replaces the venerable grand-daddy MSN Hotmail which launched in the internet dark ages of 1996.
Fear of Google (FOG) is official
Once upon a time Microsoft was seen as the omnipotent force in the new media world.
Companies cowered at the power weilded by Gates and mates with a vision painted of a world controlled by Micrososoft products and tentacles.
Now, says Robert Scoble, Google has joined the gang. Fear of Google (FOG) has now been coined over the industry and media fear of Google's ever-expanding power.
Presidential hopefuls put a visit to Google HQ high on the campaign trail priority list
So Google has invited all the Presidential hopefuls to visit the Googleplex HQ and "share their ideas in town hall-style meetings with our employees", says the Google blog.
Hillary Clinton visited first with John McCain signing the visitor roster second just last Friday.
In true new media fashion Goolge has posted the presentations on YouTube "to help potential voters learn more about the candidates and their views on the issues".
Clinton's speech. McCain's speech.
BBC News 24 to be streamed live on BBC News website
BBC News 24 is to be made available permanently on the BBC News website from today.
To date viewers have only been able to watch breaking news of major events - such as the hanging of Saddam - but now they will be able to watch it 24/7.
Head of BBC News Interactive Pete Clifton said that streaming the channel online "enhances our commitment to providing news on demand, allowing people to consume news in the time and format of their choosing whether it's live video streaming, reading an online text story or via Ceefax."
The channel is also available to mobile users signed up to the 3 mobile network.
