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Telecinco v YouTube: a Spanish landmark?

By Johanna Gibson, David Pearce, Jeremy Phillips and Ilanah Simon.

Readers may by now be well aware of the decision of a Madrid court to dismiss copyright infringement claims brought against YouTube by Spanish television broadcaster Gestevision Telecinco SA. This decision is welcomed by YouTube's owner, Google, which is currently involved in similar copyright disputes in several European countries. According to the Wall Street Journal, Telecinco claimed that the posting of audiovisual content in which it owned copyright infringed its intellectual property rights, and that YouTube was liable when users uploaded copyright-infringing material. The court rejected those claims in a statement.  Telecinco has already said it would appeal.  Google is confident that it will carry on winning in court:

"The court recognized that YouTube is merely a content-hosting platform and should not be made to pre-screen videos before they are uploaded",

the online mammoth said, adding that the result was a "clear victory" for the company, which also has ongoing copyright infringement litigation in Germany, France, Italy, and Belgium (it lost in Germany but is appealing).  Merpel notes that the Guardian calls the decision a "landmark" ruling: she wishes people wouldn't use the word for first-instance decisions in disputes that go on appeal -- it's the final ruling that makes the landmark, since trial judges' decisions are often writ in water.

The IPKat's friend Carolina Pina (Garrigues Abogados), who coincidentally represented YouTube in the Spanish litigation, has kindly sent him a non-official English translation of the decision, which you can read here.

Spanish landmarks here and here ...
... but is this a Spanish landmark too?

Full post as published by IPKat on September 27, 2010 (boomark / email).