YouTube could be hit with a $1bn (£645m) lawsuit over videos the website allegedly does not have rights to publish.

The group Global Music Rights are representing around 40 musicians - including Pharrell Williams and John Lennon.

Their leader Irving Azoff claims that YouTube doesn't have the performance rights to around 20,000 videos on the site.

He adds that whilst YouTube may have inked deals with the artists' record labels, they have not done the same with the musicians.

Azoff told the Holywood Reporter that YouTube are the "worst offenders" over artists' rights of this type.

YouTube have reportedly been told to remove the videos or face the prospect of the $1bn lawsuit.

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Watch some of the artists involved on YouTube below: