Music Royalty Collectors Accused of Copyfraud
Found on TorrentFreak on Monday, 10 October 2011
The group mistakenly demanded money from the nonprofit organization Musikpiraten for publishing five Creative Commons licensed tracks. Musikpiraten is baffled by the false claim and is considering filing a complaint for copyfraud.
They target schools and kids’ community centers, charge charities for the singing of Christmas carols without a license, and even crash weddings if they have to.
“GEMA’s claim that they hold these rights is demonstrably false. All artists have explicitly declared that they are neither members of GEMA nor of any foreign royalties collection society. The demands are therefore clearly a copyfraud,” Christian Hufgard, chairman of Musikpiraten explains.
If they can't even figure out who is a member and who is not, how can one rely on them to handle and redistribute the collected fees correctly? Labels and royalty agencies are a thing of the past; these days it's possible for musicians to distribute their works without help from such greedy third parties.