Vimeo to pay €8.5m in damages to Mediaset
January 15, 2019
From Branislav Pekic in Rome
A Rome Court has ordered Vimeo to remove all contested videos from Mediaset and reimburse €8.5 million to the Italian broadcaster.
Mediaset had sued the US-based online video platform for publication and the non-removal of videos taken from copyrighted TV programmes.
Furthermore, Vimeo will have to prevent new uploads of unauthorised contents, under risk of a €1.000 fine for each violation and a penalty of €500 for each day of delay in removal. In addition, Vimeo is obliged to publish the sentence in the paper and online editions of two Italian newspapers and on the home page of its portal.
According to Mediaset, this ruling assumes “particular importance” as it comes in the final stages of the approval process of the new European Directive on the protection of copyright with respect to violations committed via the web.
The broadcaster points out that this provision “intends to harmonise copyright laws in the individual Member States to protect the creative industry and media groups who, like Mediaset, create content regularly remunerating the rights of all authors”.