YouTube Cannot be Held Liable for Copyright Infringements, German Court Rules

Yesterday, the Higher Regional Court Munich (OLG) decided that YouTube and its service cannot be held accountable for any copyright infringements.

The judges decided that the sole responsibility should be held with the individual uploaders. When works protected by copyright are used on YouTube, the company cannot be held financially accountable within the current legal system.

This is the latest battle in a long war between the entities. In July of last year, a court in Germany upheld a ruling which states YouTube and other similar sites are only accountable for blocking videos that infringe copyright, if those videos have been brought to the attention of the service.

“Today’s decision is most regrettable,” said Dr. Tobias Holzmüller, general counsel at GEMA. “The court has obviously followed YouTube’s argumentation that it is only the uploaders who are responsible for the contents that are retrievable via the service. We consider this to be wrong.”

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The OLG decision is not yet legally binding. The right to appeal was expressly granted, and will “probably” be used. “We shall study the reasons for the decision and then probably launch an appeal,” Holzmüller declared.

see full article on Digitalmusicnews

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