Interim Injunction Against Buma/Stemra and beatport

Interim Injunction Against Buma/Stemra and beatport

MUNICH, Germany, September 15/PRNewswire/ --

- GEMA Takes Successful Court Action in Germany Against the Dutch Collecting Society Buma/Stemra and the Online Music Provider beatport

On 25 August 2008, Mannheim Regional Court granted an interim injunction against the download provider beatport as well as Buma/Stemra. The injunction prohibits beatport from making specific musical works from GEMA's repertoire available to the public over the Internet in the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany without having previously obtained the consent of GEMA. Buma/Stemra is prohibited from licensing such use. Beatport has already recognised the interim injunction as the final ruling for itself.

The Dutch collecting society Buma/Stemra had announced on 21 July 2008 that it had granted beatport a Pan-European licence allowing beatport to offer the entire worldwide repertoire of music - i.e. also including GEMA's repertoire - online throughout the EU. From GEMA's perspective, Buma/Stemra is not entitled to do this, as it was granted the right to licence GEMA's repertoire only for uses within its own administrative territory. This standpoint has now been confirmed by Mannheim Regional Court. Like GEMA, the British collecting society PRS has also successfully gone to court against the EU-wide licensing of its repertoire by Buma/Stemra to beatport.

GEMA, for its part, is one of the leading collecting societies in the complex market of Pan-European online licensing. It has, for instance, recently set up a one-stop shop for the Europe-wide licensing of mobile and online use of the Anglo-American repertoire of SONY/ATV Music Publishing. CELAS, the company established by GEMA and the British collecting society, has already been licensing the Anglo-American repertoire of EMI Music Publishing on a Pan-European basis in the online and mobile sector since December 2007. With these models, GEMA can offer Pan-European licences to licensees for the use of extensive repertoires.

Dr. Harald Heker, Chief Executive Officer of GEMA, commented: "We are pleased that Mannheim Regional Court has reaffirmed GEMA's legal viewpoint that a collecting society cannot grant licences covering the repertoire of other collecting societies without permission."

In Germany, GEMA administers the copyrights of more than 60,000 members (composers, lyricists and music publishers) as well as those of over 1 million rights owners round the world. It is one of the world's largest authors' societies for works of music.

          Press contact:      Bettina Müller, Spokeswoman and Head of Communications & PR,     bmueller@gema.de +49(0)89-48003426;     Angelika Schindel, aschindel@gema.de, +49(0)171-5220227  

Source: GEMA

Press contact: Bettina Müller, Spokeswoman and Head of Communications & PR, bmueller@gema.de +49(0)89-48003426; Angelika Schindel, aschindel@gema.de, +49(0)171-5220227

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Profile: International Entertainment