Another day, another legal issue for YouTube.
Italian broadcast company Mediaset Group is suing YouTube and Google for an estimated $780 million, claiming the popular video sharing is in violation for "illegal distribution and commercial use of audio and video files." An internal Mediaset study revealed 4,643 clips totaling 325 hours of copyrighted company material being shown without permission.
The lawsuit was filed in a Rome court, and Mediaset claims its $780M number is just a quick estimate and doesn't calculate the millions that the company may have lost after not being able to sell advertising. Specifically, three Mediaset channels lost 315,672 total days of broadcasting revenue and valuable advertising time, but Mediaset did not estimate how much the advertising revenue loss could total.
YouTube issued a statement officially stating that the company respects the rights of copyright holders and always removes videos quickly once a copyright holder complains. The Mountain View-based company has created several new filters to try and limit copyrighted videos from being uploaded, but there are still numerous loop holes exploited by users.
US company Viacom and French broadcaster TF1 both have legal cases pending against YouTube for copyright infringement.
