Tele 5 sues YouTube for copyright damages
June 23, 2008
Mediaset-controlled Tele 5 has filed a lawsuit against YouTube accusing the video sharing service of violating intellectual property rights by posting video clips without permission.
The TV network has urged YouTube to cease distributing its content on several occasions, according to the channel, but the company has ignored its claims arguing that it is only a mediator (intermediary) in the delivery of users’ video clips and not a content provider as the channel says.
“Piracy is an attack against culture and freedom of speech, so we have decided to fight against pirates by suing YouTube which is severely damaging authors, culture and companies”, said Paolo Vasile, CEO of the channel.
“YouTube’s practices are hindering our business prospects because today our content has a longer lifetime with the existence of other windows like VoD, DTT and mobile telephony. Telecinco has its Internet content exactly where it should be, on telecinco.es”, Vasile concluded.
YouTube is also being sued for over $1 billion by Viacom on similar grounds.