Vimeo legal blunder leads to $10 million fine in Italy

[Andrew Reid]

What is the point of the "safe harbour" law? Vimeo may well be asking themselves the same question!

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[ND64]

Yet another reason to think of media conglomerates as enemy of people. 

[IronFilm]

1 hour ago, Andrew Reid said:

What is the point of the "safe harbour" law? Vimeo may well be asking themselves the same question!

 

Copyright laws the world over are totally screwed up, we're better off chucking out the lot of them than keeping them.

[BTM_Pix]

I'm intrigued by this because anything involving Berlusconi and the Italian courts is usually, erm, "interesting"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trials_and_allegations_involving_Silvio_Berlusconi

I'm particularly surprised by how quickly the Vimeo case got ruled upon considering how many legal cases involving him in the Italian courts have unusually lengthy durations, in many cases long enough for the statute of limitations to run out or for the law to be changed by a government that he was leading at the time.

When Mediaset (the parent company) sued YouTube for very similar violations to Vimeo in 2008, it took seven years to be resolved.

https://tbivision.com/2015/10/22/mediaset-google-resolve-youtube-row/

That resolution included Mediaset having official content on YouTube so that might also inform what is going on in terms of going after Vimeo.

Looking at who, apart from Berlusconi, owns Mediaset, 30% of it is owned by Vivendi who also happen to own 90% of DailyMotion.

So both YouTube and DailyMotion by virtue of their relationships with two key owners of Mediaset would certainly benefit from a competitive streaming platform like Vimeo (and by extension Livestream who it now owns) having their wings clipped like this.

Having said that, I'm not sure it is anything as united and cohesive as that as, of course, Silvio being Silvio, he is currently trying to to sue the balls of Vivendi as well !

[EspenB]

Vimeo will probably not survive.

[majoraxis]

They say adversity introduces a person to one's self.  Anjali Sud meet Anjali Sud.  Looking forward to seeing how she attempts to turn this situation around.

[Andrew Reid]

4 hours ago, BTM_Pix said:

Looking at who, apart from Berlusconi, owns Mediaset, 30% of it is owned by Vivendi who also happen to own 90% of DailyMotion.

So both YouTube and DailyMotion by virtue of their relationships with two key owners of Mediaset would certainly benefit from a competitive streaming platform like Vimeo (and by extension Livestream who it now owns) having their wings clipped like this.

Very interesting. Italian "justice" at work?! Or mob rule?

[webrunner5]

The Caesar's live on even today!

[BTM_Pix]

18 minutes ago, Andrew Reid said:

Very interesting. Italian "justice" at work?! Or mob rule?

This is the intercepted phone call of him requesting the boss of the state broadcaster RAI to get two actresses parts in TV shows as a favour to opponents he was negotiating with to get a majority in parliament.

The fawning subservience of the head of RAI to him and the way these favours are being requested definitely suggests the Director will be waking up to an equine body part on his pillow if he doesn't comply

 

[indianajones]

YouTube and Facebook are in much deeper trouble because they've anointed themselves the position of deciding if your video content is fit for their platform.  Anything they don't like, they reserve the right to take it down without a meaningful appeal process.  That's not a platform, that's a curator.  And as a curator, they become responsible for the content on their platform.  Much worse situation than Vimeo (and Vimeo lost!).  If anyone bothers to sue YouTube over this, it's the end of YouTube.  Possibly Facebook too.

[Mokara]

All sorts of crazy judgements are made in Italy, there are lots of examples. Most get overturned on appeal though. However, since this involves a European rule, it will be subject to appeal in Europe, and the judgement will almost certainly be overturned. I doubt the Vimeo will pay a cent.

[User]

3 hours ago, BTM_Pix said:

This is the intercepted phone call of him requesting the boss of the state broadcaster RAI to get two actresses parts in TV shows as a favour to opponents he was negotiating with to get a majority in parliament.

The fawning subservience of the head of RAI to him and the way these favours are being requested definitely suggests the Director will be waking up to an equine body part on his pillow if he doesn't comply

 

Bunga bunga? 8ish?

[OniBaba]

oh, come on. It's not a question of "evil media empires/tycoon" again poor and safely harboured streaming platform.

If I am an advertiser, why on earth  should I pay Mediaset instead of vimeo while both have the same content? I would sponsor the latter, cheaper because they do not even have to spend money to produce the content they stream.

 

[Michael1]

I am either misinterpreting people's comments or everyone has lost their minds.

If it was their material up on a paid service with no compensation or approval, they would be all up in arms.

I've not read the safe harbor law, but common sense says it would not give companies the right knowingly leave copyrighted content up on their site, and, even worse, try to make money off of it.  If it doesn't say that, then the people in the EU are on drugs.

[Mokara]

On 2/10/2019 at 10:38 AM, Michael1 said:

I am either misinterpreting people's comments or everyone has lost their minds.

If it was their material up on a paid service with no compensation or approval, they would be all up in arms.

I've not read the safe harbor law, but common sense says it would not give companies the right knowingly leave copyrighted content up on their site, and, even worse, try to make money off of it.  If it doesn't say that, then the people in the EU are on drugs.

That is not the point. There are mechanisms to deal with that sort of situation, but the liability lies with the poster, not the service housing the content, provided that the service responds to infringement claims in the appropriate way. That is the law. If I understand the situation correctly, the Italian court has misinterpreted European rules and they will very likely be overruled when it gets appealed in Europe.

The content owner has gone after Vimeo specifically to drive them out of business, at least in Italy and by consequence, Europe, so that their own service can benefit from the commercial hole it creates.

[IronFilm]

Imagine if you owned a house, and thus EVERY law that was broken by anybody in your house, you are then equally "guilty" of the crime as well. 

Even if you were never there yourself, and had no knowledge whatsoever of the crime. 

[maxmizer]

https://www.altalex.com/~/media/Altalex/allegati/2019/tribunale-roma-sentenza-693-2019 pdf.pdf

In gran parte Per copia della trasmissione "il Grande Fratello", nel 2012.

[Digitaliant]

I bet that if the company wasn't Italian but British or American this post nobody would ever open it.

I am impressed by the bias of some comments.

It is very simple to make caricature of countries, their legal system and their supposed tycoons

[Mokara]

23 hours ago, Digitaliant said:

I bet that if the company wasn't Italian but British or American this post nobody would ever open it.

I am impressed by the bias of some comments.

It is very simple to make caricature of countries, their legal system and their supposed tycoons

Italy's legal system convicted scientists of manslaughter for failing to predict an earthquake. Does anything more need to be said?

[Digitaliant]

They have been all acquitted. You are just lying.

Does anything more to be said about your propaganda ?

I bet you come from one of those countries in which prosecutors never make mistakes ... 

Ridiculous to continue this discussion.