• Bloomberg, Thursday, May 27, 2010 1:57 PM

Yahoo, IAC/InterActiveCorp, EBay and Facebook are urging a judge to dismiss Viacom's copyright-infringement lawsuit against YouTube, reports Bloomberg. The top Internet companies filed "friend-of-the-court" legal briefs on behalf of YouTube on Wednesday in Manhattan federal court, where a judge is weighing YouTube's and Viacom's legal motions in the 2007 lawsuit, according to Bloomberg.

Why are they coming to YouTube's rescue? "Plaintiffs' legal arguments, if accepted, would retard the development of the Internet and electronic commerce," Asim Bhansali, an attorney representing the four companies, said in the brief. According to Bloomberg, the Web companies' brief was also filed for a similar case, brought by the Football Association Premier League against YouTube for allegedly infringing copyrights on broadcasts of British soccer matches.

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