Posted on 12/29/2010 9:26:00 AM PST by LibWhacker
German kindergartens told to pay before they sing BERLIN — A body representing German musicians found itself accused of Scrooge-like meanness on Tuesday after pressing kindergartens to pay up for singing songs that are protected by copyright.
The GEMA, the German musical copyright monitoring body, has written to 36,000 of the nursery schools telling them they have to fork out to photocopy song texts and to keep a proper record of which ones are sung.
Kindergartens and MPs were incensed, with the mass-circulation Bild daily calling the move "bureaucratic madness."
A spokeswoman for the Paritaetischer Wohlfahrtsverband Hamburg, an association representing 280 kindergartens, told the Tagesspiegel daily that the GEMA's demand was "petty, over the top and utterly inappropriate."
The GEMA wants all the various state, private and religious organisations that operate kindergartens to sign a contract giving the owners of the rights of songs a lump sum every year, in the same way that schools do.
(Excerpt) Read more at google.com ...
Same reason staff don’t sing “Happy Birthday” for patrons at Applebees and the like.
They would go to Happy Birthday jail.
Those people are delusional. If you’re not performing a song for a paid audience or to make a sound recording for sale it shouldn’t matter.
Love those unions.
...and lawyers.
Moreover, "Happy Birthday" is a scam - the song was actually written in 1893 but it was copyrighted by someone who had nothing to do with its composition in 1935.
The actual authors never saw a penny for their song. From a moral (but not a legal) standpoint, the copyright holders of "Happy Birthday" are thieves.
I wonder what they get for the Horst Wessel Lied?
Since when did common sense and reason and logic become obsolete in Europe and now in America?
Since the cultural Marxists infiltrated curricula with the “critical theory” cr*p and the Postmodern German philosophy threw out the logic and thinking based on Natural Law Theory of John Locke and the 1000 of years before him.
Those nasty German thinkers!!!!
P.S. BTW, I am 100% German, just hate Marx and Hegel’s evil fascist thinking.
Yes it is quite annoying, but the solution, until laws change, is simple: Use public domain music and tell the copyright holders to spend their time somewhere else.
At least the Germans have enough common sense to avoid electing Muslims.
I would take Merkel over the Islamic or even pro-amnesty RINO Bush in a heartbeat. The Bush clan are too friendly with the Clintons and bash Palin too much for my taste.
LOL. Germany still has serious freedom issues. The authorities there take a very dim view of that song, copyright has nothing to do with it.
They probably even have a 12-syllable compound word to describe this very topic. Something along the lines of Nazizeitleidfreheitcontrolle
Gesunheidt! ;)
Today it was:
The Cookie Bear is here today!
The Cookie Bear is here to play!
The Cookie Bear!
The Cookie Bear!
The Cookie Bear!
That's it, i stopped to have cookies.
I'll finish it tomorrow (the song and the box of cookies).
The music is mid 1800s, the original “good morning” lyrics are late 1800s, but the “happy birthday” lyrics are early 1900s. Even then, no copyright notice occurred for years. Technically, the song isn’t under copyright because back then you needed to have a copyright notice. Not only that, but the “good morning” lyrics are in the public domain, and there is a good legal doubt that simply substituting “happy birthday” constitutes a copyrightable derivative.
How long before they demand every individual list and pay royalties on every copyrighted song they sing in the shower?
At some point the music industry is going to infuriate the public so much with this nonsense that copyright protection will be rolled back or repealed.
Personally, I think all non-commercial use of songs should be considered fair use. I’m not talking about mass file sharing of digital music, but singing a copyrighted song at a party or school event should be free.
They could also look for Marlboro Light smokers who thought it was a ‘healthier alternative’.
>>>I invent a new song just about every other day for my 15 month old.
Today it was:
The Cookie Bear is here today!
The Cookie Bear is here to play!
The Cookie Bear!
The Cookie Bear!
The Cookie Bear!
That’s it, i stopped to have cookies.
I’ll finish it tomorrow (the song and the box of cookies).<<<
This is to inform you that I have just copyrighted the Cookie Bear song and you must pay me royalties every time you sing it. :-)
It was copyrighted by Jessica Hill, sister of the songwriters, Patty and Mildred Hill. She enlisted a music publisher to help.
The actual authors never saw a penny for their song.
Half right. Mildred Hill died in 1916, and never received any royalties. Patty Hill did receive royalties, and since her death in 1946, the sisters' share -- about $1 million a year, according to the publisher a few years ago -- goes to the Hill Foundation.
As I recall, there wasn’t a problem with Happy Birthday until “Sir” Paul got a hold of the rights. The Marcarena guys did this with the Girl Scouts as well.
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