MediaSet, Silvio Berlusconi, Sue YouTube For $800 Million

Den mand er vanvittig!

That man is in sane!

/Sik

MediaSet, Silvio Berlusconi, Sue YouTube For $800 Million

Michael Learmonth July 30, 2008 1:35 PM

Google and YouTube just found themselves in more legal/political hot water -- in Italy. MediaSet, the dominant TV provider in Italy controlled by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, sued Google (GOOG) and YouTube in a Rome court, seeking "at least" $779 million in damages.
The Milan-based company found 4,643 videos from MediaSet companies on YouTube on June 10, representing 325 hours of broadcasting, the company said. Based on the number of hits generated by the clips, MediaSet claims it lost the equivalent of 315,672 broadcasting days.
Of course, most of that online viewing would have been lost to TV anyway since it occurred after the initial broadcast of the video. Still, it looks like YouTube isn't having much better luck screening copyrighted video from Italy than it is clips of "The Daily Show."

But it's a good reminder that Viacom isn't the only one suing Google. Other parties suing the firm include the English Premier League, The Scottish Premier League, The Tennis Federation of France, Cherry Lane Music, Murbo Music Publishing, France's TF1, as well as another MediaSet company, Spain's Telecinco.

Meanwhile, Viacom and Google are negotiating the transfer of YouTube logging data this week, which Viacom hopes to use to establish just how many of its clips made it on the system -- to support its claim for $1 billion in damages.

Source: http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/7/mediaset-silvio-berlusconi-sue-youtube-for-800-million