GEMA or the German RIAA

I just heard about this organization the other day from my cousin who lives in Germany.

Wiki - GEMA

GEMA Homepage

I was chatting with him and sent him a few youtube vids and apparently he can't even watch them because of this organization.

GEMA is a state-authorized collecting society and performance rights organization based in Germany, with administrative offices in Berlin and Munich. GEMA represents the usage rights stemming from authors' rights (e.g., mechanical licensing, broadcast licensing, synchronization licensing) for the musical works of those composers, lyricists, and publishers who are members in the organization. It is the only such institution in Germany and a member of BIEM and CISAC.

The RIAA is a horrible organization as it is but they don't actually block songs on youtube, or maybe they do. I know there are tons of songs from my playlists that are unavailable now.

I understand artists need to make money off their songs to make more songs but I'm of the feeling that musicians make music for the love of making music to put it simply. They make most of their money putting on concerts for their fans. CD/song sales are kind of on the backburner, or should be since they only get a pittance from those sales anyways thanks to the recording companies.

Thoughts ATS?

reply to post by thov420


Most Pubs in Germany don't have music playing, because of GEMA charges.

They are a criminal organisation pretending to help musicians,

while restricting musical enjoyment to what they want you to hear.

Tfw.

The GEMA surely are like robber knights. But they don't block Youtube, these vieos are blocked by Youtube themselves, because they want to avoid claims by the GEMA.

The problem is, that the GEMA always asks high charges. So since years they are negotiating and quarreling with Youtube and seem to be the only organization, that can not come to any result. In the past I lived to see the very same thing with a site, that published music. Meanwhile this site has vanished from the net.

When my daughter had her last trip wth the school class the bus driver did not play any music during the 12 hours trip, explaining that the GEMA would ask too much money for this "public performance". There even was a report, that the GEMA asked for money from a kindergarden, because the children sang songs or played CDs. I am not sure, if that last story is true, but it would fit.

I once made a website for a musician. Again the GEMA asked a lot of money for putting music examples on the site. We could lower the costs by reducing the sound examples to a few seconds and by telling them, that the artist himself is the owner of the site. Nevertheless he had to pay a fee. So the GEMA protects the artists by taking a fee even from themselves - simply to get their own share.

I have to pay this mafia money every quarter just for having a radio playing in my PT practice. On top of that, I also have to pay the GEZ mafia which charges money for even owning a radio or TV or internet capable computer or cell phone and sends it all to the state-endorsed ARD-ZDF Deutschland Funk Radio-TV cartell....and it doesn´t matter if I watch thier channels, listen to their radio stations, or view their internet sites or not. I heard the BBC does the same thing. It´s robbery.

thanks for the good read

no more comments at this time.

reply to post by Theflyingweldsman
That's just crazy. I can't imagine being in a bar without any music playing.

reply to post by Siddharta
I didn't know youtube blocked the music themselves but I guess it makes sense instead of getting into it with GEMA. I can't believe they would charge a musician to put his own music on the internet like that.

reply to post by fockewulf190
That's nuts. I'm glad it hasn't come to that here in the US yet.

So it sounds like all "public" performances have to pay the GEMA mafia correct? What if I was a musician and just went into a pub or a park and just started playing music for free for everyone, would I be in trouble for not giving them a cut? Even if I'm not profiting from it myself? Thanks all for the contributions.

Ouh yeah, GEMA really sucks but I don't care about it anymore. At least for my purpose, the internet. Here the GEMA mainly appears to be a problem when somebody, located in Germany, is trying to watch videos on youtube, but there are enough webhosters left to use. Furthermore you can also hide your ass by using an "IP changing program", like I use SecurityKiss for example...

As a result you appear as a user located in the U.S., Britain, France, it's your choice, for youtube and the GEMA is out. Simple as that

Grenzerfahrung
Ouh yeah, GEMA really sucks but I don't care about it anymore. At least for my purpose, the internet. Here the GEMA mainly appears to be a problem when somebody, located in Germany, is trying to watch videos on youtube, but there are enough webhosters left to use. Furthermore you can also hide your ass by using an "IP changing program", like I use SecurityKiss for example...

As a result you appear as a user located in the U.S., Britain, France, it's your choice, for youtube and the GEMA is out. Simple as that

edit on 23Wed, 08 Jan 2014 23:22:22 -0600America/Chicago17America/ChicagoWed, 08 Jan 2014 23:22:22 -0600fpm11 by Grenzerfahrung because: (no reason given)

Thanks for that info on masking. GEMA has been pissing me off as well. I will look into the link you provided.

reply to post by StarlightNine


Gladly, but the free version of securitykiss is limited to about 300 MB a day, which isn't much traffic. I payed 80€ for one year and now there is no more limit concerning the traffic. I'm also able to choose much more different servers all over the world after upgrading SK.
Anyway, look for some crack in case you dont want to pay something. Furthermore there are some free other progs (Hotspot Shield, Tor Vidalia Bundle and so on) similiar to securitykiss but I've experienced none of them so far. Finally I dont regret the 80€ anyway because instead of the very low speed I've experienced when changing a proxy server manually, securitykiss is really fast. Most of the time I dont even notice anything

By the way. Where are you from? Where in Germany?

Grenzerfahrung
reply to post by StarlightNine

 

Gladly, but the free version of securitykiss is limited to about 300 MB a day, which isn't much traffic. I payed 80€ for one year and now there is no more limit concerning the traffic. I'm also able to choose much more different servers all over the world after upgrading SK.
Anyway, look for some crack in case you dont want to pay something. Furthermore there are some free other progs (Hotspot Shield, Tor Vidalia Bundle and so on) similiar to securitykiss but I've experienced none of them so far. Finally I dont regret the 80€ anyway because instead of the very low speed I've experienced when changing a proxy server manually, securitykiss is really fast. Most of the time I dont even notice anything

By the way. Where are you from? Where in Germany?

edit on 13Thu, 09 Jan 2014 13:16:35 -0600America/Chicago18America/ChicagoThu, 09 Jan 2014 13:16:35 -0600fpm01 by Grenzerfahrung because: (no reason given)

Really great info. Thank you again!
Right now, I'm in Mannheim.

reply to post by StarlightNine


Ah, Mannm! Best regards from Frankfurt, Mainhattan!

Grenzerfahrung
reply to post by StarlightNine

 

Ah, Mannm!

Best regards from Frankfurt, Mainhattan!

Regards! Love the skyline.