According to Huffington Post, a German court is accusing youtube of having copyright infringement and is totally responsible for it. On Friday, it was ruled that youtube install filters to prevent users from uploading music videos that belong to the German industry music group (GEMA). For allowing users to upload the videos and songs, youtube may be required to pay for all the clips uploaded.
According to the Washington Post, youtube claims that it does not control what users upload and that the ruling for filters will slow down the rate of users uploading videos to the site since every video will be checked for infringement. "It would jeopardize not only YouTube but every other innovative service on the Internet that allows users to submit content by forcing them to implement filtering” youtube states. To obey the ruling, youtube took down videos that seemed suspicious of copyright due to complaints.
Usually youtube offers software to copyright owners, so that they can identify their songs and videos and they can flag content that is infringed. Now the court in Germany, Hamburg, ruled that youtube has to do the job for the copyright owners meaning every time a video is flagged, youtube has to use the software to flag the videos and prevent any further infringement.
GEMA members state the lawsuit is a great success because it is making Youtube have some responsibility for videos and it will protect their videos. Google spokesman Kay Overbeck also claims it the lawsuit was a partial success because it created opportunities for growth in legal security and developments in Germany. Overall, the company will have to review the complaints from the ruling before making decisions and actually make the lawsuit successful.