According to the collecting society GEMA, the German branch of the IFPI plans to significantly reduce the remuneration rate for authors. The IFPI has submitted a request to the arbitration board of the German Patent and Trademark Office to lower the remuneration from the current 9 percent of the manufacturer's selling price of sound recordings to just 5.6 percent.
The GEMA sees this as an attempt by the music industry to compensate for the drastic revenue declines of recent years at the expense of creatives. "The attempt by the German recording industry to solve its problems on the backs and at the expense of creative composers and lyricists will fail. The industry must recognize that intellectual property, the fundamental right of creative composers and lyricists, must remain protected in its essence in the future," says Prof. Dr. Reinhold Kreile, chairman of the board of GEMA in outrage.
The IFPI, for its part, cannot understand the outrage from GEMA and argues that the last applied contract had expired years ago and that the most recent negotiations over a new percentage of remuneration were unsuccessful. Furthermore, the GEMA was able to record a record result in 2003 - in stark contrast to the music industry, which, according to initial estimates, suffered the largest revenue decline in its history in 2003.
Source: golem.de
The GEMA sees this as an attempt by the music industry to compensate for the drastic revenue declines of recent years at the expense of creatives. "The attempt by the German recording industry to solve its problems on the backs and at the expense of creative composers and lyricists will fail. The industry must recognize that intellectual property, the fundamental right of creative composers and lyricists, must remain protected in its essence in the future," says Prof. Dr. Reinhold Kreile, chairman of the board of GEMA in outrage.
The IFPI, for its part, cannot understand the outrage from GEMA and argues that the last applied contract had expired years ago and that the most recent negotiations over a new percentage of remuneration were unsuccessful. Furthermore, the GEMA was able to record a record result in 2003 - in stark contrast to the music industry, which, according to initial estimates, suffered the largest revenue decline in its history in 2003.
Source: golem.de
