The all powerful video site Youtube has had some wind pulled from its sails after the German performance rights organisation GEMA successfully argued that they had not done enough to stop infringing content from being uploaded.

A German court made the ruling based on seven of 12 GEMA owned videos saying Youtube had not done enough to ensure accountability of the users that had uploaded the content.

Depending on the final outcome Youtube may have to pay out lump sums of royalties for these particular examples and open the door for many more!

A spokesperson for Youtube who stated that they took no responsibility for what their users uploaded said “Today’s ruling confirms that YouTube as a hosting platform cannot be obliged to control the content of all videos uploaded to the site. We remain committed to finding a solution to the music licensing issue in Germany that will benefit artists, composers, authors, publishers and record labels, as well as the wider YouTube community.”

Back in 2009 GEMA again successfully argued that Rapidshare had not done enough with a court ruling that the organisation install filters to protect their copyrighted content (who now looking to have to filter ALL content).

source: NME