A body representing 60,000 German artists, called GEMA, has stated that fee licensing negotiation talks between it and YouTube have «collapsed for the time being.» As a result, «YouTube has announced that it is blocking videos from recording firms on the German YouTube platform -- similar to what happened in Britain two weeks ago.»

The shutdown follows several others recently where the Google-owned YouTube video viewing website has leveraged its significant popularity and viewer base against interests seeking to profit from its video viewing. Whether or not this is a move to protect YouTube’s rightful income, or to limit the amount of money greedy artist group interests are trying to «steal» away from YouTube is anyone’s guess.

The GEMA statement indicated «In the interest of its members, GEMA would like an appropriate share in YouTube’s income and value.» And whereas this may be a legitimate attempt to collect fair royalties, the terms of the request are not disclosed and the matter is up for debate.

YouTube has previously blocked content in the U.S. and Great Britain due to similar licensing disputes. The blockages can include muting or removing or blocking the video completely.