Germany passes CMO Act
On 28 April, Germany passed the Act of Collective Management Organisations (CMOs), which replaces the previous Copyright Administration Act. Our German member GEMA was holding its Annual General Members’ Assembly in Berlin from 25 to 27 April, where the motions subject to ratifications mainly stemmed from the implementation of the CMO Act and its effect on GEMA’s rules and regulations.
GEMA’s CEO Dr. Harald Heker said explained that “by implementing the EU Directive, [GEMA now has] a pan-European standard legal framework for cross-border licensing. Furthermore, many standards that have applied in Germany for decades, shall be obligatory for all EU countries in the future.”
A guest speaker at the General Assemblee, Federal Minister for Justice Heiko Maas said that he was “convinced that this is entirely in the interest of GEMA which has actively accompanied the reform in Europe as well as the relevant German implementation.” Maas equally put an emphasis on the importance of joint projects like ICE, the International Copyright Enterprise, that groups UK’s PRS and Sweden’s STIM that enable “as many people as possivle to get the widest possible access to art and culture, to create attractive business models for work disseminators, and not least a fair remuneration for all creatives which provide the foundation for this with their work.”
Read GEMA’s full press release here.
Published on 29 April 2016