YouTube to Mediaset SpA: Va' All'Inferno!

Looks like Google has updated its arrogance algorithm again. Having dismissed Viacom’s $1 billion copyright infringement suit over video clips on YouTube as a “mistake,” the company is taking the same tack with a similar suit brought against it by Mediaset SpA, a television company run by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi (shown at right). The suit, which seeks $779 million in damages, claims YouTube illegally hosts some 325 hours of Mediaset SpA programming. “Given the information that’s come to light and the quantity of illegal files on the site, it’s possible to say that the group’s three TV channels lost 315,672 audience viewing days,” the company said.

So another angry finger is pointed at Google (GOOG). Not that the company seems to care all that much. “YouTube respects copyright holders and takes copyright issues very seriously,” Google said in a statement. “There is no need for legal action and all the associated costs.”

A predictable reply, but one that does little to address the fact that YouTube’s efforts to help rights owners easily manage their content haven’t exactly been working. If they were, Mediaset SpA wouldn’t have found 325 hours of its programming on the site, and earlier this month I wouldn’t have been able to watch the entire “Sex and the City Movie” as a series of YouTube clips.