Advanced Television

Vimeo to pay €5m in damages to Mediaset

July 19, 2019

From Branislav Pekic in Rome

Vimeo has been ordered to compensate Mediaset with almost €5 million for 498 copyrighted videos uploaded to its site without authorisation.

A Rome Court issued the ruling, condemning the online video portal also to pay almost €80,000 in court costs. It comes on the heels of Dailymotion also being ordered to pay Mediaset compensation.

According to a statement issued by the Italian broadcaster, the judge remarked that Vimeo has at its disposal “technical tools that allow to reduce up to 98 per cent the risk of uploading content protected by copyright”. In his ruling, he also established that Vimeo was fully aware of the presence of illegally uploaded Mediaset content in violation of the general “principle of good faith”.

A €5,000 penalty was imposed for each day of delay in the deletion of the videos, with the penalty automatically applying even in the case of any future uploads of unauthorised Mediaset material.

Since 2008, Mediaset has conducted numerous legal actions to prevent online piracy, involving 19 different digital operators, including live video streaming portals and social networks. In 2019 alone, five different cases have already been successfully judged: Facebook, Yahoo!, Dailymotion and the two against Vimeo. All court cases have so far generated judgements and precautionary measures in favour of Mediaset.

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