24 July 2008

MADRID - A Madrid mercantile court on Wednesday upheld a lawsuit brought by Spanish television channel Telecinco against YouTube accusing the internet video-hosting website of illegally disseminating copyrighted material.

The court ordered an "immediate suspension of the use of audiovisual recordings whose intellectual property rights belong to Telecinco".

The ruling sets a precedent that could be used by other Spanish television stations to force YouTube to remove copyrighted content that is uploaded illicitly by users of the website.

"Things have changed. There are new pirates who are not being chased by the police. YouTube is not a clandestine company, it has a face, it trades on the stock market and it is doing a lot of damage to culture," Telecinco CEO Paolo Vasile said when the case was launched earlier this year.

Telecinco fears that footage being uploaded to YouTube is reducing viewer numbers as people watch their favourite shows when they want to on the website. In addition, Telecinco has launched its own online video-on-demand service MiTele.

Other channels have taken an alternative approach. Spanish national broadcaster TVE and private broadcaster Antena 3 have signed accords with YouTube to create their own channels on the video portal.
       
[El Pais / Expatica]

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