US District Judge Louis Stanton has dismissed some damages claimed by England’s Football Association Premier League Ltd. against Google Inc and its video-sharing Web site YouTube.com in a proposed class-action copyright infringement lawsuit.

However, According to Judge Louis Stanton, if non-U.S. based rights owners prevail they could ask for damages for live broadcasts.

Judge Louis Stanton pronounced, “There is no circumstance in which punitive damages are available under the Copyright Act of 1976.”

YouTube was sued in May 2007 by England’s Football Association Premier League Ltd. for allegedly allowing widespread postings of copyrighted material without permission. 

It should be noted that Viacom Inc., owner of MTV Networks and Comedy Central, is also fighting a lawsuit against Google for same kind of act.

Lawyer for Google, Adam Barea said that they were very happy with the court’s decision and would keep on defending against the remaining claims in the case.

On the other hand, claimants’ attorney Louis Solomon said that they could still seek other statutory remedies like compensatory damages and disgorgement of profit.

The case is Football Association Premier League vs. YouTube Inc, no. 07-3582, U.S. Dist. Court, Southern Dist., New York.