GEMA not at fault for Youtube video blocking (Germany related)

[sjm]

@Compy: I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this to you a while ago, but "eventuell" in German means something very different from "eventually" in English - the two are false friends.

"eventually" means the same as "schlussendlich" or "schliesslich" - "I eventually managed to reach him after two hours" = "Ich konnte ihn schliesslich nach 2 stunden erreichen"


"eventuell" in German just means "possibly" or "may[be]" in English (moeglich[erweise]).

So "this video is blocked because it might eventually hold content that, the GEMA hasn't made available in terms of distribution rights" doesn't make much sense. What it probably says is "this video is blocked because it may contain content that GEMA has not made available for distribution" (post the original German and I'll give you a proper translation, but we don't get the GEMA notices here so I have no idea what the original message is).

[Tricky-Loops]

@Compy: I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this to you a while ago, but "eventuell" in German means something very different from "eventually" in English - the two are false friends.

"eventually" means the same as "schlussendlich" or "schliesslich" - "I eventually managed to reach him after two hours" = "Ich konnte ihn schliesslich nach 2 stunden erreichen"

I'd rather translate: "Ich konnte ihn nach 2 Stunden (letztendlich) doch noch erreichen!"

[Nokenoku]

I thought about this last night... and actually YT doesn't act against copyright law - if we talk about official channels from the musicians, labels, content providers that have clearance from the original creators, etc.

Being an official channels sadly means nothing in Germany.

You have to contact the GEMA and explicitly ask for it.
I think it's called "Freistellungsantrag".
I can't remember the details, but I think the whole thing is rather complicated.

In any case, Youtube is not allowed to stream any "GEMA music" right now. It's completely forbidden.
If they did, they could be easily sued.

[Compyfox]

I still think that these companies all handled the "Freistellungsantrag" beforehand - as mentioned over and over. Still doesn't clear why "non GEMA" member videos are blocked over here!


Regarding the translation (sjm), yes - I could mix that up again.
In German it's called:

Dieses Video ist in Deutschland nicht verfügbar, weil es möglicherweise Musik enthält, für die die erforderlichen Musikrechte von der GEMA nicht eingeräumt wurden.

So "maybe" is indeed the better wording.

[Tricky-Loops]

Better: "This video isn't available in Germany because it COULD contain music for which the necessary music rights were not granted by GEMA."

[Nokenoku]

I still think that these companies all handled the "Freistellungsantrag" beforehand - as mentioned over and over. Still doesn't clear why "non GEMA" member videos are blocked over here!

They obviously didn't.
You might want to read that stuff up ... like I said, I remember, it's not that easy.

Also I already explained, why "non GEMA" videos are getting blocked.
It's done to not being sued afterwards. Keyword: GEMA Vermutung

Thank our courts, stupid laws and the questionable force the GEMA has ...

[Compyfox]

Which is why I hope, again, that this particular "sentence" changes something on the long run.

EDIT:
And it still doesn't clear why some chart "high rollers" are blocked, while others are not. Example: Beyonce is blocked, Alex Clare (with the overused song "Too Close") isn't. EminemVevo was blocked until recently, so was Lorde's channel, Katie Perry's channel is blocked, the channel of the band "Passenger" isn't. Disney Channels' "Frozen" music video by Idina Menzel (over 115 mil. plays!) also isn't blocked. Yet zircon's tracks "Studies in Ether" and "Arsenal" from his 2005 album are blocked(!) on Youtube (channel zirconst), even though he is not a member of the GEMA - and the rest is unblocked. Even his video game remixes.

Your argumentation is kind of invalid. Because if they block to "prevent" GEMA fees - every kind of music video, or video with music content (unless creative commons) needs to be blocked. This applies to remixes, cover versions, own creations, etc.

This behavior doesn't make any sense!

But what about all these German guys who make video tutorials about imitating or recreating lead sounds of famous tunes, for example of Calvin Harris songs? Do they all get problems with GEMA, too?

This is a very good Q that I overlooked.

Currently, Cover versions/remixes and the likes are mostly not "blocked" (actually, 95% of them aren't - unless we talk "Wrecking Ball"), but in reality - without proper clearance, they are (not only in theory) a copyright infringement. This is at least what various companies told me a couple of years ago, and also the GEMA in Nuremberg prior to my move to Berlin.

In the US, this is covered by the "fair use" clause. In Germany, this can be considered as "right of citiation" (§51 UrhG), creativity/right of expression, considered as "teaching" (even if this paragraph in the UrhG is very strict to "schools only"), to some cases even "freedom of speech"/public-relations or even used as "homage" (see various "parody" videos).

The lines are so thin, it's not even funny. Everyone does that: cover versions, video reviews, parodies, etc. But pretty much all of them, by German law in terms of copyright, do an infringement in some form.

And this is what I try to clear with the lawyer I'm in contact with.



Though I do remember certain debates regarding "reuse" of certain melody lines, or patterns - here the copyright laws can't get a hold on, since "music" only has so many available notes. And there are bound to be similarities with other songs.

Then again, there are musicians that clearly say "funk it, I'll rip it anyway and sue your butt on top of it, if you say 'you stole from me' ".

See (amongst others):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timbaland_ ... ontroversy

Or the "Blurred Lines" controvery:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2 ... rsies.html

[Tricky-Loops]

I hope this is only a hoax:

http://www.avclub.com/article/pharrell- ... ther-99681

[Nokenoku]

And it still doesn't clear why some chart "high rollers" are blocked, while others are not.

Again:
Everything "big" will be blocked until it is definetly clear, that it's not "GEMA material". Youtube can't do it otherwise, because of our laws.

To get your stuff unblocked, you have to contact the GEMA to get a Freistellung and Youtube to actually make it happen.

You might want to read this:
http://www.sueddeutsche.de/digital/gema ... -1.1584842
Youtube sadly did not get a song-list from the GEMA, so they have to assume everything popular is "GEMA material".

If you wonder, why some pieces are not blocked, it might be, because Youtube did not reconize them as music yet. With 72 hours of video meterial uploaded every minute to Youtube, it's clear, that the content is not scanned by hand. There are automatic filters, which work in many cases (also have false positives), but do not in others.


Oh ... and VEVO is a different story by the way.
VEVO has a contract with the GEMA (they got a novice deal).

[Compyfox]

Yet all (most) VEVO videos are blocked!

And it still doesn't clear why musicians, that are NOT part of GEMA (or the IRAA) are blocked. Did you even take a look at the example with zircon? That is not on "heavy rotation", and is actually music from 2005 (but posted in the last 2-3 years on YT).

Also, by your defition, "popular music videos are automatically blocked". Yeah - I see that with the ammount of joke videos, cover versions and the likes. Hugo Kurt Schneider must have been blocked up and down then. Every week a new video, a cover version, millions of clicks - the "filter" should have responded.

Again - this system doesn't make any sense. And blaming it on automatic filters, doesn't either.


Why do you defend YT so much? They are as much to blame as the GEMA. Only that the GEMA is (IMO!) in the right this time.

[Tricky-Loops]

We don't know if the system makes sense. Maybe there are certain GEMA terms (in direction of GEMA-Vermutung) that we don't know and that's why Youtube is behaving like that...

[Nokenoku]

Yet all (most) VEVO videos are blocked!

"Almost all" really can't be right here.
Anyways ... I don't know the legal details. Do you?
If not, we shouldn't judge or heavily speculate here.
In jurist-world there are often a lot of strange things happening, which just make no sense.

And it still doesn't clear why musicians, that are NOT part of GEMA (or the IRAA) are blocked. Did you even take a look at the example with zircon? That is not on "heavy rotation", and is actually music from 2005 (but posted in the last 2-3 years on YT).

How often do I have to explain it again?
Maybe zircon sells his music on some service, which feeds into the automatic content-ID-system of Youtube. So it gets reconized and banned, because such music usually is "GEMA content". And they HAVE to do this, because of the "GEMA Vermutung".

If the music of zircon is indeed not "GEMA content" in any way, he should contact GEMA and Youtube get his his stuff unblocked.

Every week a new video, a cover version, millions of clicks - the "filter" should have responded.

No, why?
Do you know, how the filter-system works?
It probably does spectral analysis and compares stuff. A cover is in spectral view completely different form the original.

Why do you defend YT so much? They are as much to blame as the GEMA. Only that the GEMA is (IMO!) in the right this time.

I am absolutely not saying, YT is perfect.
Actually there's a lot, which could/should be better.
But for this case, I think they are really not to blame.