Following a six-and-a-half-year crusade, the Premier League has walked away from its long-running legal battle over copyright infringement with the Google-owned video-sharing website YouTube.
According to documents filed in New York and seen by the Guardian, the Premier League, the French Tennis Federation and several music publishers have agreed to drop the legal case, which was launched in 2007.
The move is likely to lead to clubs being able to use the platform to show delayed highlights of their matches on their own YouTube channels. While the court case was ongoing they had been prevented from showing any on-pitch action and limited to behind-the-scenes videos and interviews.
In 2007, the Premier League promised to take on YouTube for what it claimed was extensive copyright infringement as clips recorded from the TV were uploaded to the site. It launched a class action in the US, offering others the opportunity to also take on the video sharing site in the wake of a separate US$1bn claim by media owner Viacom.
But in May this year, a New York judge denied a motion to hear the case as a class action, ruling it was "unrealistic" to consider the claims of the various rights holders in a single case. The latest development means that all sides have agreed to walk away.
Under the terms of the "voluntary dismissal", both sides will pay their own costs. Over recent years YouTube, bought by Google for $1.65bn in 2006 and now with 1bn users, has been seeking to evolve from a platform for user-generated videos to become also home to a wide range of professionally produced content.
The Premier League has taken advantage of new tools introduced to allow rights holders to quickly identify illegally uploaded content and have it taken down or monetise it. The Premier League, in a bid to protect its £5.5bn rights deal, has opted to have the content removed.
The Premier League refused to comment but is likely to refocus its attention on taking legal action against live streaming websites that present an obvious threat to its broadcasting revenues. In July, it won a landmark case requiring the six largest internet service providers to block a streaming service.
