Lawsuit Against Google/Youtube
On April 16, 2009 Billboard reported that Peterson has filed a lawsuit at the Higher District Court in Hamburg against Google/YouTube, claiming that his music videos and other audiovisual repertoire were used illegally. In his lawsuit Petersen claims infringement of his copyrights and master rights. He states that more than 125 million streams of his productions - of which he owns the copyrights and master rights as author, publisher and producer - have been viewed, for which he never received payment from Google/YouTube. In the Billboard interview Jens Schippmann, senior partner of the law firm Kamin & Wilke representing Peterson claimed the lawsuit has been necessary because Peterson never granted any synchronization rights and adaptation rights to GEMA as part of his membership agreement: "The German legal situation is different to the Anglo-American copyright law because in Germany the copyright itself will always remain with the author and exploitation rights granted do not exclude the author from any decision regarding synchronization and adaptation because of the author's moral right," says Schippmann. "My client did not assign any synchronization or adaptation rights to Google/YouTube and is therefore entitled to demand cease and desist such usage negotiate about demanding appropriate remuneration." Lutz Melzer, junior partner at the firm: "The lawsuit includes our demand for injunction, for information and accounting about the figures of the usage and the turnover, especially from advertising. In addition we demand for a court decision that any damages incurred by such exploitation have to be reimbursed by Google/YouTube. So far we cannot exactly compute the amount of such damages without additional information from YouTube but it seems that the damages will exceed a few million dollars solely in the Peterson case."
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