The Higher Regional Court Munich (OLG) decided yesterday that YouTube and its service cannot be called to account for any copyright infringements.

Instead, the judges found that the sole responsibility lies with individual uploaders. Based on this decision, YouTube is not held financially accountable within the current legal framework when works protected by copyright are used on the platform.

The background to the legal dispute is German collecting society GEMA's demand for an adequate payment to musical authors for the ...