I think it's worthwhile mentioning again that there are at least two significant differences etween GEMA and US collection societies: GEMA is the only collection society in Germany. Its factual monopoly is acknowledged. Members of GEMA strictly are not allowed to license some works with GEMA while others are licensed under Creative Commons for instance. All works you are creating during your membership solely are managed by GEMA.
This whole GEMA (Germany's collections society) apparatus of rules, conditions and rates really is complex. If I get anything wrong - be it either to GEMA's advantage or disadvantage - please tell me and I'm going update my article. Email me or simply post a reply below. I gladly will stand corrected. I don't know what it looks like with ASCAP et al. - I can't imagine it to be worse than here.
There's something going on in Germany. We already had our share of GEMA within the past few weeks (see Rapidshare and Jamendo). Read about it at ContentSphere, or do it over at TechDirt. GEMA, Germany's only collections society, still is surprisingly entertaining (if you're into cynism). But, there's some uprising fresh breeze, and it's coming from Germany's most southward located town: Sonthofen.
