YouTube loses court battle over music clips

A court in Hamburg ruled that YouTube is responsible for the content that users post to the video sharing site. It wants the video site to install filters that spot when users try to post music clips whose rights are held by royalty collection group, Gema.

YouTube said it took no responsibility for what users did, but responded when told of copyright violations.

Gema's court case was based on 12 separate music clips posted to the website. The ruling concerns seven of the 12 clips.Gema represents about 60,000 German song writers and musicians.

If YouTube is forced to pay royalties for all the clips used on the site it will face a huge bill.

If enforced, the ruling could also slow the rate at which video is posted to the site as any music clip would have to be cleared for copyright before being used.