Rome, 16th June 2011
Messrs.
YouTube, LLC
901 Cherry Ave.
San Bruno, CA 94066
USA
FYI Google Italia
via Antonio Salandra, 18
00187 - Roma
Object: “unioneconsumatori” channel.
Dear Sirs,
as you probably know, Unione Nazionale Consumatori is the oldest association in Italy, founded in 1955 and recognized by the National Consumers’ Code.
On the 31 July 2008 our organization joined in the website “YouTube” with the account “unioneconsumatori”, in order to use it as an institutional video channel. From that moment on we published lots of contents and extracts of Italian television broadcasts (Rai and R.T.I. in particular) in which our manager took part in some interviews concerning topics of general interest.
Then we checked that on the 29th of April the channel was suspended after two complaints filed by R.T.I. to YouTube over the participation of our Secretary General Massimiliano Dona in some information broadcasts.
The suspension of our YouTubechannel reveals itself as illegitimate and it is a serious limitation of on-line information,regarding the activity we carry out for the benefit of the community.
As you know, also in light of the sentence issued in August 2008 by the district judge Jeremy Fogel, San Josè California, it has been established that the copyright holder cannot ask for the cancellation of a content if his posting respected the fair use of the material protected by copyright.
This is the proper case in which we are involved, sincewe did not have anycommercial or competitive purpose towards the copyright holders in uploading our videos. In fact we only wanted to give some information about topics of general interest.
By registered mail of the 26th May 2011 we have already asked to the publisher of R.T.I. for a revocation of the filed complaints. However, Unione Nazionale Consumatori complains about the illegitimacy of the suspension of the channel.
Consequently, in order to maintain our relationship of cooperation, we would like to make a formal request for a re-establishment of the “unioneconsumatori” channel within and no later than five days of receipt. Thus our organization will be allowed to carry on spreading useful contents for the consumers.
We look forward to receiving your positive reply while warning you that this letter is to be considered as a formal demand letter. If we don’t receive any reply, we will be obliged to protect our rights in the appropriate places.
Your faithfully
Avv. Prof. Massimiliano Dona
Secretary General
Unione Nazionale Consumatori