YouTube's Seven-Year Stand-off Ends (bbc.com)

YouTube has resolved a long-running dispute that prevented many of its clips being accessible in Germany. The Google-owned video service had been at odds with Gema - a German rights body representing musicians, composers and publishers - since 2009. From a report on BBC:The disagreement had affected clips in which the artists appeared as well as those that used their songs in the background. Payments will now be made, but neither side has disclosed the terms. Google's Content ID system means that clips flagged as containing Gema-protected tracks can now have adverts automatically added to them to recompense the songs' creators. And red banners that had prevented thousands of YouTube's clips from playing in Germany have now been removed as a consequence. "This is a win for music artists around the world, enabling them to reach new and existing fans in Germany... and for YouTube users in Germany, who will no longer see a blocking message on music content," blogged YouTube's head of international music partnerships, Christophe Muller.

Comments

Both Gema and Youtube are at fault.

[Qbertino]

The Gema claims to be there for the artists, but they are just about one of the most annoying German authorities out there. Example: You can't just play music in your cafe, you have to pay fees to the Gema. Pretty steep ones too.

Likewise we know how much Youtube cares about artists publishing their stuff on Youtube - not at all.

Re:Both Gema and Youtube are at fault.

[Anonymous Coward]

You can't just play music in your cafe, you have to pay fees to the Gema

Fairly standard - the CD doesn't license you for public performance only for private listening. Certainly within Europe most (all?) countries have some sort of performing rights licensing organisation.

Re:Both Gema and Youtube are at fault.

[Anonymous Coward]

That's not what's wrong with GEMA. Its legal status allows it to claim any music for their artists, unless you provide them with a list of the songs you play and prove that you have a license to play them. If there's one song on the list with an unclear status, you pay exactly as much as if you had been playing GEMA artists the whole time. Even if you only play 100% certain CC songs at a public event, GEMA will come after you. Don't have a complete playlist? Pay up. And yes, they do send people to check that you only play what's on your playlist.

Re:Both Gema and Youtube are at fault.

[alex67500]

Yep, same thing in France and the UK. You have to pay a fee. If you organise a festival or a town fair and want to play music, same. And also if you organise sporting events where the competitors use music (ice skating, gymnastics etc.).

Re:Both Gema and Youtube are at fault.

[GuB-42]

Sure but GEMA has a few things to make it even worse :
- If you play music from independent musicians, you have to prove that not a single one of them is affiliated to GEMA. If you fail to do it for even a single title, you pay full price. Guilty unless proven innocent.
- Artists affiliated to GEMA have to pay GEMA fees for playing their own music. They may get a refund in some conditions.
- GEMA is governed by its full members, and only the most financially successful artists can become full members, the others have no say. Unsurprisingly, full members also get the lion share of the benefits.

Re:Both Gema and Youtube are at fault.

[known_coward_69]

same in the USA, except here it's called ASCAP

Re:Both Gema and Youtube are at fault.

[Anonymous Coward]

The Belgian equivalent just asks money for any event, even when there is no music. Our old theater group had to learn the hard way. We were fined 5 million Belgian Franks (about 125,000 euro) because we acted a self written play. The SABAM (the Belgian Gema) claimed ownership of the play written by our director. It was the dead of a 231 year old amateur theater in 1993 (older than the French revolution, when our region was still part of the Austrian Empire that fought illiteracy and encouraged these kind of theaters connected to schools).

The middle-men come to an agreement

[Anonymous Coward]

I have a feeling that this is not what we really want.

Do Japan next

[HideyoshiJP]

Great job, YouTube. Now work your shit out with Japanese labels - you know, those people you didn't really consider when you decided to roll out YouTube Red based on the user's region, ignoring the fact that lots of people watch videos not made in the US.

GEMA is a german institution with a long tradition

[blkhawk]

GEMA is the only german institution that I can think of that managed to preserve all its initial values from its creation in 1933 to the present day.

"This is a win for music artists"

[wardrich86]

"This is a win for music artists" Sure... I think this is a win for the execs and the labels. I doubt the artists will see any of it.

Re:"This is a win for music artists"

[blkhawk]

AFAIK GEMA actually pays out directly to its member artists. The problem is how the money is distributed. There is a build-in weighting toward more "serious" music (Classical music). Also the Voting internally to GEMA depends on how much money you make through GEMA - that causes some gerrymandering-alike effects.

I'm not 100% up to date on them but the head of GEMA was a guy who wrote the lyrics for some 1960/70 Songs played traditionally during carneval and still got about a million in yearly fees in the early 2000nds. While its true that these songs are well known in Germany GEMA assigned them to a class of "Standard music" and thus they become more heavily weighted vs. other music.

Its not unusual for a small GEMA member artist or band to pay more in GEMA-fees for their own events than they get back at the end of the year.

Re: GEMA is a german institution with a long tradi

[chaboud]

Wow, dude. Way to walk into that... Nobody mentioned Nazis until you showed up...

Agreement reaches back to 2009!?

[garry_g]

According to reports, they set up the agreement to reach back to 2009 - I wonder what for! As YouTube has been blocking suspected GEMA music since forever, there's no point in paying anything for unplayed music of the past ... !?

Re: GEMA is a german institution with a long tradi

[blkhawk]

To be fair I strongly implied it - However that was mostly sarcasm. GEMA as an construct is one of the most calcified and hidebound institutions i can think of. They sorta worked in their day but they were pretty much ready for a restructuring by 1970 or so. This restructuring did not happen.

Re: GEMA is a german institution with a long tradi

[AC-x]

We all know what blkhawk was suggesting here

Re:"This is a win for music artists around the wor

[ninthbit]

How is ripping off youtube the easiest way to pirate TV and Movies. Flexget reading an RSS feed into Transmission is by far easier... its automatic. Ripping youtube seems about the most convoluted way to get stuff I can imagine.

Re:"This is a win for music artists around the wor

[stealth_finger]

sure, it's awesome if you want shit compressed worse than quality 3 mp3s. Oh wait, you think they have "high definition" audio lol.

But, but, but, it said HD in the description.

Re:GEMA is a german institution with a long tradit

[imatter]

I am pretty sure Ferdinand Porsche's rank was SS Oberführer.

Re: GEMA is a german institution with a long trad

[stealth_finger]

Godwin won, it's in the name.

Re:I couldn't care less.

[stealth_finger]

You forgot the Stupid Greedy You who wants stuff without providing any recompense.

Fuck off, and feel free to take all your shit that keeps getting regurgitated with no imagination to be sold again and again and again with you. It won't be missed.

Re:I couldn't care less.

[Cederic]

Well, this should unblock around 400 of my videos in Germany.

Instead of me making zero money by not having them views in Germany, I'll now make zero money by them being viewed in Germany.

GEMA will make around $0.07 a year by monetising my IP.

It's a fucked up system made worse by the absolute inability to avoid it. You can't legally share videos online (in the UK, but sounds like Germany is the same) if they have music in the background. There's no way for 'normal' people to tell what that music is, whether it's copyrighted, who owns the copyright or indeed negotiate an online distribution agreement, particularly one that aligns to the income generated by the video: across 650 videos on Youtube I could monetise them for around $6/year. Good luck getting 700 musicians and their representatives to licence me for all that music for $6/year.

It's completely fucked up. Either I break the law, I post on Youtube and the media cartels exploit my IP, or I don't share any of the video I capture.

I can't see the benefits anywhere there for consumers, society or (selfishly) me.

The disagreement has affected ... nobody

[Opportunist]

At least nobody anyone gives a shit about. Germans simply used YouTube proxies and came from Finland, Austria, Russia or if everything fails Malaysia and watched whatever they wanted to watch.

It was business as usual. Artificial blockages were treated like bugs and routed around. As far as most of Germany was concerned, this was a non-issue.

And Perviously on the Stand-off...

[b783719]

Gema complained to Youtube saying they are stealing profit. Youtube followed Gema ruling and red banned all those videos.

With profit lose, now Gema begs youtube to un-red banned all those videos with ads. Youtube again followed their ruling.

This is an 'undo the fail' for music artists around the world who doesn't understand how to use youtube as benefit in their industry.

Next stop, (insert another stupid music/record label / music artists industry) complain to youtube saying they are stealing profit...