German GEMA lacks urgent interest to obtain a blocking order for YouTube content

Earlier this week the Court of Hamburg ruled in the case between GEMA (the German collective management organization for related rights) and YouTube (Google). The court found that GEMA’s claim for an emergency order to block access to infringing material on YouTube lacked urgent interest. GEMA had long known that the contested songs were available on YouTube.

But that's not the end of things between Viacom and YouTube, since the court said it might rule in favour of the collection society if a new suit was filed under standard court proceedings. "There are good reasons to think that YouTube indeed has some duty of care of detecting illegal uploads," said Judge Heiner Steeneck. "GEMA has the opportunity to ask for such a ruling in regular proceedings". GEMA will file a lawsuit under regular proceedings to have the dispute cleared, its lawyer already said. GEMA believes that YouTube does have a duty of care to take a more active stance in preventing illegal content online.

Source: Bloomberg.com