German Music Publishers Demand YouTube Royalties

The German Society for Musical Performing and Mechanical Reproduction Rights (GEMA) is demanding royalties from YouTube. GEMA told the popular video service that it should delete all videos with non-licensed German music, or pay.

GEMA says it is currently holding talks with YouTube about possible arrangements. GEMA didn’t want to wait until the takeover of YouTube by Google was finalised with 70,000 new videos every day, there is a lot of unlicensed music posted by individual users. Currently, there is no preliminary screening process to prevent copyright clips from being uploaded.

Last month YouTube deleted nearly 30,000 files after The Japan Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers complained of copyright infringement. GEMA, however, is the first major music industry association that is trying to settle copyright claims with YouTube.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt denied on Tuesday that his company had set aside $500m to settle copyright claims by media companies. YouTube is testing an audio-signature technology that can recognize a licensed clip, and then remove it automatically.

Author: FutureMusic

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