Copyright conflict between Mediaset and YouTube intensifies

The vice president of Mediaset, Pier Silvio Berlusconi, expressed fierce criticism towards Google’s video service YouTube recently. Mediaset accuses YouTube of reproducing, broadcasting and financially benefiting from their footage, without the necessary licenses.

As many copyright protected tv shows, music and films venture freely on YouTube, Italian media conglomerate Mediaset is determined to put an end to this and reach an agreement with Google. This dispute proves to be quite difficult to resolve and Mediaset has brought the matter to court several times. Recently, Mediaset has won a court case in Rome against YouTube, but lost a similar case in Spain, which had been brought from their subsidiary Telecinco.

The president of Mediaset, Fedele Confalonieri, explained to Mediaset’s shareholders and Italian media in a recent speech what is bothering the media conglomerate so much. In his opinion, television companies face a legal asymmetry, where the world of Internet is characterised by "a total absence of rules and controls", while on the television market, "there is a heavy interference by the regulators." In his speech to shareholders, Confalonieri spoke of very damaging asymmetric situation where half of all that is intellectual creation and original copyright protected content goes down the drain.

Mediaset points out that the ongoing dispute with Google is about protecting their investments against any unlawful use and piracy. The Italian company warns that if they fail to protect these interests, it will become almost impossible to develop, finance and distribute creative content in an economically sensible way.

At stake, according to Confalonieri, is "the business model based on the pillar of the exclusive rights and remuneration." "If the major labels and broadcasters will lose their battle, show business, creativity and the production of quality content will simply dry up."

Sources: Corriere Communicazioni, Borsa Italiana