On 20 April 2012, the regional court of Hamburg decided in favor of GEMA in the dispute with YouTube, ordering the removal of seven copyright-protected videos from its platform. Despite its victory, GEMA nonetheless launched an appeal against the verdict on 21 May 2012, because according to GEMA the talks following the verdict remained fruitless, and so the collecting society could not ensure legal certainty for its members. Moreover, GEMA demanded more transparency from the Google-subsidiary in their ongoing negotiations. YouTube also launched an appeal against the 20 April verdict, on the grounds that "the implementation of filters would compromise innovation and freedom of speech.".
