News

The Fred Jay Prize for German-language lyrics was awarded on 7 April for the 26^th time. This year’s winner is the lyricist, composer and singer Dota Kehr, who received the award at the occasion of the GEMA members’ festival in Berlin.

The sound of Dota Kehr oscillates between folk music, jazz and Brazilian influences. Her texts are characterised by lightness, poetry and wit, while not avoiding social issues.

The Fred Jay Prize is awarded since 1989 to lyricists in the field of popular German-language songwriting. The Prize endowed with €15.000 is reminiscent of the Austrian lyricist Fred Jay (1913-1988) and is awarded under the auspices of the GEMA Foundation.

Press release

Say No to the dismantling of your rights in Europe! The European Commission consultation on copyright is now closed but you can still sign the Creators’ petition:

http://www.creatorsforeurope.eu/en/

The future of culture, creators and cultural industries in Europe depends on the outcome of a consultation on copyright being conducted by the European Commission with a deadline for submissions of 5 March 2014. 

We want Europe to make culture a priority.

We want Europe to give culture its true place at the heart of the European economy.

We want European Institutions, candidates, political parties and heads of State to say Yes to culture in Europe, Yes to millions of jobs, Yes to the artists and Yes to the people of Europe, who could not breathe without culture in their lives.

We want them to sustain and develop the cultural industries, which depend on copyright to sustain millions of jobs and secure millions of livelihoods.

Today, we urge you, the citizens of the European Union, to voice your views and to sign this petition, which will be sent to the President of the Commission and to Commissioners, who will soon present a White Paper.

On 27^th February the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) gave its judgment in Case C‑351/12, OSA v Léčebné lázně, a reference for preliminary ruling asked by a  Czech court in 2012.  The case concerns a dispute between the Czech authors’ society OSA (so-called collecting societies or CMOs) and a residential spa establishment which gave access to broadcast works through TV and radio sets in the bedrooms of its residents.

In its judgment, the CJEU reaffirmed the crucial role played by the authors’ societies to protect the interests of the rightholders they represent. It confirmed that the obligations provided in article 16 of the 2006 services directive on the freedom to provide services are not applicable to CMOs. The Court also underlined the important role played by OSA as the only authors’ society to protect the rights of all rightholders within the Czech Republic and concluded that the monopoly granted by the Czech legislation to OSA for this kind of usages  is compatible with the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, since there is no other method allowing the same level of copyright protection.