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Deutsch: Frankreich: YouTube haftet nicht für Inhalte

On 29 May 2012, in a case brought to court by TF1 against Google for its YouTube service, the High Court of Paris ruled that YouTube was just a hosting service and therefore not bound to police the content posted on it by its users.

TF1 sued Google in 2008 over a series of extracts from its programs posted on YouTube by its users. The TV company claimed 141 million Euro as damages for counterfeiting, unfair competition and parasitism.

"The defendant is not responsible in principle for the video content on its site; only the users of the site are....... It has no obligation to police the content before it is put online as long as it informs users that posting television shows, music videos, concerts or advertisements without prior consent of the owner is not allowed," says the court’s decision.

The court dismissed all TF1 claims and asked the TV channel to pay 80000 Euro for Google’s legal fees.

"We continue to oppose any demands to systematically filter or pre-screen YouTube content and are confident that future court rulings will uphold the need to allow innovative Web services to flourish," Christophe Mueller, head of partnerships for YouTube in Southern Europe, Middle East and Africa, said in a statement.

This is good news for Google as the company was not as lucky in Germany where in April 2012 the court took a totally opposite decision deciding YouTube was responsible for the content its users published and should take down copyrighted videos or pay royalties.

The French court decision can, however, still be appealed, as it was given by a civil court of first instance in Paris.

YouTube wins against TF1 which was asking 141 million euro (updated) (only in French, 29.05.2012)
http://www.numerama.com/magazine/22736-youtube-gagne-contre-tf1-qui-lu...

The High Court of Paris ruling in TF1 case against YouTube (only in French, 29.05.2012)
http://www.numerama.com/media/YoutubeTF1-Jgt29mai2012.pdf

A Victory for the Web in France (29.05.2012)
http://googlepolicyeurope.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/victory-for-web-in-fr...

French court backs Google in TV piracy case (29.05.2012)
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/29/net-us-google-france-idUSBRE...

EDRi-gram: YouTube loses a case in Germany to collective society Gema (25.04.2012)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number10.8/youtube-gema-case