YouTube Copyright Lawsuit Grows

Members of the National Music Publishers Association said Tuesday that they planned to join a lawsuit against YouTube over copyright infringement, signaling more legal trouble for Google's video site.

The original lawsuit was filed by British Soccer organization Premier League in May, and sought class-action status. Since then, music publisher Bourne has joined, and Robert Tur, owner of the Los Angeles News Service also plans to join the suit shortly.

While YouTube has settled with all four major record labels, it is still finding itself fighting to keep an ever-increasing number of copyright infringement cases out of court. Music publishers also want a slice of ad revenues, but royalty rates have been a major sticking point.

Google must deal with both: while the labels own the recordings to the songs, publishers own the copyrights to the actual lyrics and melodies. Thus, regardless of its deals with the labels, it is still technically infringing on artists' copyrights.

"Many song writers and music publishers view YouTube as a promising promotional platform for connecting with their fans," Google said in a statement. "We are surprised and disappointed that the NMPA has elected to take this route."

The Mountain View, Calif. search company also argues that under current copyright law, it is the owner's responsibility to identify the infringing material.