The Off Topic Topic

[Archy]

GEMA in Germany is... conterversial. They represent the authors/writers of music (not the copyright holders) and basically, if music is publically playing anywhere, GEMA will be there to make you pay. That can be the music on a phone line while you're in a waiting loop, music you play from tape when your football club is having a party, or artists playing their own songs at concerts.

The burden of proof is on the side of the consumer. If they don't want to pay they have to prove that music is GEMA free which is often very hard to do. It's the reason many YouTube music videos are blocked in Germany, because Google and GEMA couldn't get to an agreement (GEMA wants 1 cent per video view).

Their latest target: in my home state is a group of 10 elderly women, some with dementia, who meet every couple weeks to sing together in a small café that is only open on Sundays. GEMA looks through press articles, and came across them, and sent them a bill for €25.- The ladies will stop meeting, because they're unsure of how to handle the bureacracy and aren't equipped to fight GEMA.

An independent small festival for street musicians will probably stop as well, because they can't afford the EUR 7500.- bill sent retroactively for the last 5 years, and they don't have the means to fight it (they would have to get playlists from all participating musicians, and then go through the list to see what's GEMA and what's not).

Sounds pretty much like SGAE in Spain then. Except burden of proof is on them, at least.

I'm a member btw 

Sounds like SABAM to me. They make companies pay if they have a radio in the office and a lot of the above stuff.

[Caliga]

 

Ozzy Osbourne gives Louisville Leopards $10K
Jeffrey Lee Puckett, @JLeePuckett 2:30 p.m. EDT May 9, 2015

The Louisville Leopard Percussionists are on a rock star roll.

Jimmy Page gave the group of grade-school musicians a shout-out in February on his Facebook page after watching a video of the group perform a medley of Led Zeppelin songs,

But Ozzy Osburne has one-upped his friend and rock 'n' roll rival. After seeing a YouTube video of the Leopards crush their version of Osbourne's signature hit, "Crazy Train," the former leader of Black Sabbath and heavy metal icon donated $10,000 to the group.

The Louisville Leopard Percussionists began in 1993 and rely primarily on donations as a community non-profit organization. The group is comprised of more than 60 students ages 7-14, and founder Diane Downs uses a modular approach, teaching each student a specific part of a song.

When they all come together, as on "Crazy Train," it is glorious.

Students come from 48 schools in the Louisville area and the LLP is an after-school project funded by donations, performance revenue and album sales. They have performed with My Morning Jacket, Dave Samuels, Louie Bellson and Ruben Alvarez, and in 2000 were awarded a grant from the Carlos Santana Milagro Foundation.

[Syt]

I have found my new purpose in life:

http://www.angels-light.org/

[celedhring]

I have found my new purpose in life:

http://www.angels-light.org/

This one looks like the kind of credo Mono could dig.

http://www.angels-light.org/english/images/pozadi_0a_en.jpg

[Syt]

Those WatchMojo Top 10 Lists are getting weird. Top 10 propaganda movies (from the first half of the 20th century)? Really?


(Triumph of the Will won before Birth of a Nation and Battleship Potemkin)

[Eddie Teach]

They're running out of ideas. 

[celedhring]

Those WatchMojo Top 10 Lists are getting weird. Top 10 propaganda movies (from the first half of the 20th century)? Really?


(Triumph of the Will won before Birth of a Nation and Battleship Potemkin)

Yeah, Potemkin got robbed here; Birth of a Nation isn't even a propaganda film; it's just laughably racist.

[Duque de Bragança]

Those WatchMojo Top 10 Lists are getting weird. Top 10 propaganda movies (from the first half of the 20th century)? Really?


(Triumph of the Will won before Birth of a Nation and Battleship Potemkin)

Yeah, Potemkin got robbed here; Birth of a Nation isn't even a propaganda film; it's just laughably racist.

Jew Süss would also be a better choice than the Eternal Jew which is just propaganda, not a movie. Jew Süss is more subtle (not hard) hence more effective.

[Admiral Yi]

Heard on NPR that some bars in Alaska have started installing free pregnancy tests to combat the very high incidence of fetal alcohol syndrome.

[celedhring]

They also suggested a deal to kindergartens where the kindergartens pay 56 p.a. for photocopied song sheets. The state of Bavaria settled with them paying out 290,000 p.a. A main issue with GEMA is how intransparent it is, with a huge share of the money going to a few members who have voting rights.

Sounds exactly like SGAE then :p

I have one vote(!!!!) but the richest members have many more. Censitary suffrage ftw.

[Syt]

They also suggested a deal to kindergartens where the kindergartens pay 56 p.a. for photocopied song sheets. The state of Bavaria settled with them paying out 290,000 p.a. A main issue with GEMA is how intransparent it is, with a huge share of the money going to a few members who have voting rights.

Sounds exactly like SGAE then :p

I have one vote(!!!!) but the richest members have many more. Censitary suffrage ftw.

Does SGAE also have a points system that stipulates compensation? In GEMA, a pop song would give 12 points, a 70 minute symphony 1200. (GEMA distinguishes between entertainment music and serious music, with the latter getting a point advantage because it's supposedly played less frequently - mostly this will be classical music. For entertainment music, if a foreign author/composer/lyricist has given their collection rights to an agency, then GEMA automatically represents them in Germany (which means that almost all entertainment music is covered by GEMA).

Again, main contention with GEMA is not their existence, but utter their lack of transparency, their reluctance to negotiate with digital content providers (see overblown 1 cent per view demand for YouTube ... a video with 100,000 views in Germany would net them EUR 1,000, which is probably a lot more than YouTube could afford to stay profitable) - something similar agencies in other countries manage, and a fee structure that can hurt the artists they represent and that can be prohibitive to some event organizers.

[jimmy olsen]

 

[Syt]

Random blast from the past. When I was a kid, gum vending machines were pretty widespread. You'd put in DM0.10 and would get some gum. Many models had additionally an DM0.50 section that would sell cheap little toys (a friend and I were collecting awesome rubber robots one summer).

Around 1980-82, though, you could also get this:



I remember having one of those pocket knives. They were super cheaply made, obviously, and the blade was maybe an an inch, or an inch and a half, but man was 6 year old me proud of it.

I can't imagine the shitstorm this would create today.

[derspiess]

I was out on the deck last night smoking a cigar and heard coyotes yipping, barking, and making other weird sounds.  Got out the spotlight and in my neighbor's backyard there were three sets of eyes looking back at me.  I'm thinking of setting some traps.  Fuckers aren't native to Ohio so screw 'em.

[The Brain]

Fuckers aren't native to Ohio so screw 'em.

Phobe.