A mandolin player who once recorded with The Grateful Dead has joined the growing queue looking to give YouTube a legal shoeing.

According to AP, David "Dawg" Grisman filed a copyright infringement lawsuit in federal court in San Francisco on 10 May, and is seeking "an unspecified amount" for illegal postings of his videos.

Grisman and business partner Craig Miller, who together run the Acoustic Disc studio in San Rafael, say the action is aimed at "helping independent musicians whose music is distributed without authorisation by YouTube's owner, Google Inc".

Their lawsuit specifically states that YouTube and Google "deliberately refuse to take meaningful steps to deter the rampant infringing activity readily apparent on YouTube".

Miller explained to AP: "We are looking out for ourselves and all the other people like us - musicians and independent publishers."

Those among you who may recall The Grateful Dead's fairly relaxed attitude to bootleg tapes of its shows should note Miller's explanation that there's "a difference between fan bootlegs and the global distribution of Google". He concluded: "No one's looking out for the little guy." ®

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