Berlusconi's Mediaset sues YouTube for €500 million
LEIGH PHILLIPS
31.07.2008 @ 09:31 CET
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's media group, Mediaset, has filed a €500 million lawsuit against online video service YouTube for allowing content owned by the Italian firm to be uploaded by its users in a move that could have Europe-wide implications.
Mediaset, which filed the suit in a domestic civil court on Wednesday (30 July), accused YouTube of permitting as of 10 June this year some 4,643 clips of content produced by the media empire to be accessible via its site without permission from the copyright holder.
A major test case for Europe? (Photo: EUobserver.com)
The clips totalled some 325 hours of programming, or a loss of 315,672 viewing days from YouTube users who the claimant reckons would otherwise have watched Mediaset's television channels.
The suit only covers the use of copyrighted material on YouTube, but not financial losses resulting from forfeited advertising revenues. Mediaset warned that YouTube should expect additional legal action in this regard.
The Google-owned online video sharing service rejected accusations that it is responsible for copyright infringement.
"YouTube respects copyright holders and takes copyright issues very seriously," the firm said in a statement.
The company says that it employs video-recognition software to enable copyright-holders to discover when their content has been uploaded without permission. As soon as any such work is identified, YouTube removes it from the site, the firm claims.
"There is no need for legal action and all the associated costs."
The Financial Times quotes an intellectual property lawyer as saying that the issue could yet reach Luxembourg.
"This is an area ripe for a major test case, which may reach the European Court of Justice, as courts across Europe are not being consistent in their approach," the business daily quotes Joel Smith, a partner with legal firm Herbert Smith, as saying.
YouTube is currently also the target of legal action from American media group Viacom - the owner of MTV - and a Spanish Mediaset subsidary, Telecinco. Viacom has sued YouTube and parent company Google for €640 million ($1 billion) for copyright infringement.