Germans can't see meteorite YouTube videos due to copyright dispute

[nsane.forums]

German rights group wants $0.005 per stream and Google says nein.


The error message reads: “Sorry, this video, which includes music from [sony Music Entertainment], is not available in Germany because GEMA has not granted the publishing rights thereto.”

Last week, when the world was watching crazy Russian meteorite videos on YouTube, Germans weren’t.

As a result of an ongoing dispute between Google (YouTube's parent company) and GEMA, the primary German performance rights organization, a number of Russian YouTube videos have been blocked from within Germany. The reason? These videos contain background music playing from a Russian car radio.

This is just the latest example of a ridiculous situation that has developed in Germany. According to a recent study by OpenDataCity, more than 60 percent of the top 1,000 YouTube videos are unavailable in Germany because Google assumes the music rights might be owned by GEMA.

Germany doesn’t have an equivalent of the American fair use provision, which this would almost certainly fall under in the United States. Google did not immediately respond to Ars’ requests for comment. However, Google did provide a statement (Google Translate) on February 16, 2013 to the German Journalists’ Union (DJV), which first raised the issue last week. (Full disclosure: I was a DJV member when I was living and working in Germany as a journalist from March 2010 to March 2012.)

“YouTube has no insight into what rights GEMA represents,” the Google subsidiary wrote. “Due to the legal and financial risks that result from these processes in the context of GEMA’s [published royalty fee structure], music videos are blocked in Germany.”

Rights group wants a “per stream rate” of $0.005

In its own statement, the DJV pointed to one specific meteorite video, lamenting this sad state of affairs. The group believes the issue is limiting press freedom in Germany.

That video in particular, when viewed from Germany, results in this error message: “Sorry, this video, which includes music from [sony Music Entertainment], is not available in Germany because GEMA has not granted the publishing rights thereto.”

When Ars asked GEMA via Twitter how it even knew whether it held the rights to the song in question, the group’s spokesperson, Ursula Goebel, simply wrote (German): “YouTube apparently blocks arbitrarily.”

Last month, GEMA wrote in a statement that Google’s German-language messages are “extremely misleading.”

“The displayed text gives the false impression that GEMA is categorically refusing to license the use of works of music,” wrote Harald Heker, GEMA’s CEO.

“GEMA has, on the contrary, always been willing to grant YouTube a license and YouTube has always had the option of acquiring a license itself in accordance with the legal regulations. For reasons that are unclear to us, YouTube has in the past not been prepared to go down this route. We have so far purposely avoided taking legal steps so as not to encumber the ongoing negotiations with further legal proceedings.”

In the same statement, though, GEMA said it wants royalty rates of a “per stream rate of €0.00375 ($0.005).” The organization has taken this dispute to the Arbitration Board of the German Patent and Trademark Office. In the meantime, GEMA adds that its talks with YouTube had been “broken off.”

GEMA did not respond to Ars’ request to pay €0.00375 to GEMA so that a friend in Germany could see the video in question.

View: Original Article

[Reefa]

car radio lol.thats all i can say. :s ridick

[Ambrocious]

The A.I. system of determining whether or not a file is infringing needs to be removed. People need to be put in place, hell, YouTube can PAY ordinary people to be moderators of content. If a file is truly infringing, THEN it could be taken down. The current system is an abomination that hurts more than it helps.

[Reefa]

totaly agree my brother

[Reefa]

and the de3th off google :(

[Ganxxta]

Well we can't see almost any music (related) video on youtube in Germany, because we have 1940s laws and institutions who think that internet=bad -.-

But what our politicians and the GEMA doesn't know, the internet is not limited to one country, so proxy all the way, at least for me :D

[SnakeMasteR]

The GEMA is not the bad guy at all, YT/GOOGLE is because they block the videos on their own to be legally save, the GEMA in most cases hasn't even made a complaint about the affected videos. Most Germans think it's only the GEMA's fault, it isn't. It's a legal dispute between two parties. Pighead against Pighead.

[Ganxxta]

The GEMA is not the bad guy at all, YT/GOOGLE is because they block the videos on their own to be legally save, the GEMA in most cases hasn't even made a complaint about the affected videos. Most Germans think it's only the GEMA's fault, it isn't. It's a legal dispute between two parties. Pighead against Pighead.

If you say so... (todays german news article on that subject...)

[SnakeMasteR]

Just a coincidence, it didn't happen before. ;)

On one hand they claim not to take down videos (to make sure that YT's own GEMA-info is wrong) but now they do exactly what they declined before, take down videos in masses.

According to a recent study by OpenDataCity, more than 60 percent of the top 1,000 YouTube videos are unavailable in Germany because Google assumes the music rights might be owned by GEMA.

And it changes not much in what i said before.

[Ganxxta]

Just a coincidence, it didn't happen before. ;)

On one hand they claim not to take down videos (to make sure that YT's own GEMA-info is wrong) but now they do exactly what they declined before, take down videos in masses.

According to a recent study by OpenDataCity, more than 60 percent of the top 1,000 YouTube videos are unavailable in Germany because Google assumes the music rights might be owned by GEMA.

And it changes not much in what i said before.

Sure Google acts on their own, but as GEMA already said (and already did), if Google would not block any (allegedly) GEMA owned clip ASAP, they would be sued to death.

If I were Google I would also block everything that has a sound in it to avoid lawsuits.

As you may know, german law says every music piece is GEMA owned, until proven otherwise (GEMA Vermutung), so Google would need to proof for every vid someone uploads that it is not really represented by the GEMA, waisted money if you ask me.

[Alanon]

Wow. Had no idea it was such a prevalent issue.