German Court Rules Google is Responsible for YouTube Copyright Violations

Hamburg, GermanyA German court recently ruled that Google is responsible for any potential copyright conflicts that may occur from videos uploaded to YouTube by users.

span itemprop="image" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" style="display:block">The Hamburg Regional Court said that merely asking users if they have the right to put up the videos does not absolve the internet-search giant of responsibility if the videos infringe on copyrights, according to The Wall Street Journal. The court ruled that Google must seek proof of the users' rights to post the videos.

The case involved three videos of classical English singer Sarah Brightman.

Google plans to appeal the decision, according to the news source.

"This decision results in a substantial legal uncertainty for all providers of video platforms, opinion forums, social communities, blogs and many other internet services," Arnd Haller, legal director for Google Germany, said in a statement.

In June Google won a similar case in the US. Viacom filed the suit against Google over the issue of unauthorized videos being uploaded to YouTube. The media company has stated that it plans to appeal the decision.