News

Press release –  February 25 2014 –

The Regional Court of Munich today issued a ruling on the legal dispute between GEMA and YouTube concerning the use of GEMA error messages to block videos in Germany. The court ruled that the messages on YouTube illegally denigrate and vilify GEMA.

When users in Germany search for things like music videos and live streams on the Internet platform YouTube, they often see a screen containing either the following error message, or onevery similar:

Dieses Video ist in Deutschland leider nicht verfügbar, da es möglicherweise Musik enthält, für die dieerforderlichen Musikrechte von der GEMA nicht eingeräumt wurden. Das tut uns leid.

(“Unfortunately, this video is not available in Germany, as it may contain music for which GEMAhas not granted the necessary music rights. We apologize for this.”)

The Regional Court of Munich ruled today that these and similar messages used by YouTube give “a completely distorted picture of the legal dispute between the parties to the detriment of GEMA.” The court also said that the use of the error messages vilified and denigrated GEMA. It found that the text misleads users by implying that GEMA is blocking the videos, when in fact YouTube is the one responsible.

The background to the dispute is that YouTube does not pay royalties for the use of music on its site, but generates advertising revenue through the music.

Today, the Competitiveness Council formally adopted the Directive on Collective management of copyright and related rights. Following the adoption by the European Parliament on 4 February 2014, the Directive has now been formally adopted by all the law-making institutions of the Union and it will soon enter into force as a European Directive.

GESAC, on behalf of the 33 societies it represents across Europe, welcomes the final adoption of the Directive. The Directive highlights the key role of collective management organisations (CMOs) in negotiating deals with licensees and securing fair remuneration to creators. It aims at setting European wide standards of transparency and governance, which are essential to ensure that relationships with rightholders and users are based on confidence. The approval the Directive is also the demonstration that EU copyright regime is fit for purpose and it can adapt to the challenges of the digital era.

For more information:

• Better access to online music – Collective management  of copyright – Council’s press release
• Greek Presidency’s video summary – here
• GESAC Press Release on the CRM Directive following the plenary voting at the European Parliament  – here

Michel Barnier, European Commissioner for the Internal Market and Services, presided today over the signing of Key principles and recommendations on the management of the author resale right. Resale right is an essential intellectual property right for visual artists.  It guarantees authors of graphic, plastic and photographic arts the ability to earn a fair share from the resale of their work by an auction house or gallery. Resale right is now in place in 66 countries and draft laws aiming at implementing it are underway in many countries, including the two largest world art markets: the United States and China.

These key principles and recommendations are the result of a Stakeholder Dialogue launched at the beginning of 2013 to find practical solutions to improve the administration of the right for all stakeholders. They have been agreed by representatives of rightholders’ community including Collective Management Organisations as well as by representatives of art market professionals, dealers and auctioneers.

Press Release –

Authors’ and performers’ organisations congratulate Legal Affairs committee on forward-looking report that looks at how to sustainably modernise the implementation of the private copying levy system to cater for permanently evolving consumption patterns of copyrighted works and to ensure its efficient functioning within the single market.

The organisations, that represent the interests of screenwriters, directors, composers, journalists, visual art authors, writers, actors and musicians, welcome the balanced report at a time when the European Commission is consulting on copyright.

Mrs Castex’s report includes a number of detailed clarifications on different elements of the virtuous system that provides legal certainty for booming device manufacturers and importers, freedom to copy for consumers and fair compensation for creators.  The report correctly identifies where the implementation of the current system needs to evolve to match modern consumers’ expectations (through updated lists of leviable devices) and the demands of the single market (improved levy setting and cross border declaration systems).

Presented as the European Parliament’s response to private copying “mediator”, Antonio Vitorino’s report from last year, the committee has countered a number of Vitorino’s suggestions. Phasing out the system is completely unrealistic as consumers will still seek a freedom to copy that would be untenable in the absence of the exception.  Shifting the levy payments to retailers has also been demonstrated as excessively burdensome.

The report also casts a shadow over the UK’s attempts to introduce the private copying exception without any fair compensation for rightholders and the Spanish government’s inexplicable decision to give a 115m€ discount to device manufacturers and importers while further challenging an already stretched public purse and failing to guarantee a drop in prices to consumers.

We would like to place on record our thanks to all the MEPs and particularly Mrs Castex for their tenacity in bringing this report to such a successful conclusion.

Press contact: Véronique Desbrosses secretariatgeneral@gesac.org Tel. +32 (2) 511 44 54