The lawsuit, which was originally filed by GEMA, resulted in a decision that holds YouTube liable when users upload copyright-protected music to the site without the rightsholder's permission, but only after it has been informed of the infringement.
Upon receiving a complaint, the court required YouTube to filter out videos where the title contains both the song name and recording artist of the recording.
YouTube has decided to appeal to verdict, saying that the ruling makes it much more difficult for websites that host user-generated content to operate.
"Even though the court confirmed that YouTube is a hosting platform, the ruling to implement filtering would be damaging for innovation and freedom of expression online," said spokesperson for YouTube Germany Mounira Latrache.
GEMA also appealed the verdict saying that it is looking for legal certainty for its members and demanding maximum transparency in ongoing negotiations.
YouTube and GEMA continued negotiations on a licensing agreement following the recent verdict but the collection society said that no such deal could be achieved before the appeals deadline.
There was also dispute between the two parties over whether negotiations should be made public, with YouTube saying it had no legal obligation to do so until a deal was reached.
Counsel of GEMA Alexander Wolf said that GEMA appealed the case because the parties didn't reach an agreement before the appeals deadline, adding that once a deal is made with YouTube a tariff will be applied to all user generated content sites in Germany.
Source: PC World
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