Via Karan I found out about an ongoing online petition that demands an comprehensive investigation and reform of GEMA. If you don't know it: GEMA is the monopolist performing rights society in Germany.

The petition starts as follows:

The German Parliament may decide… that the actions of GEMA shall be checked for their compatibility with the constitution, voluntary association laws and copyright, and that a comprehensive reform of the GEMA shall be performed regarding the tariffs for small concert organizers, the calculation of royalties for GEMA members, simpification of their terms and conditions, transparency and collecton procedures.

If you are a musician (or music is important to you), please sign this petition! Obviously this won't move mountains, but maybe it will help to get a certain media attention that this topic needs direly. To clarify: This petition is not about abolishing GEMA, since it is an important source of income for many musicians. But it is about changing certain things that make GEMA a partially unfair system. Here's a few notes on issues I have:

• GEMA is a monopolist. In comparison to that, in the USA, artists have a choice between ASCAP, BMI and SESAC
• GEMA members have to have their complete works managed by the GEMA – no giving downloadable albums away for free like Coldplay in Germany. A combination with Creative Commons licenses is utterly impossible as well.
• As a GEMA member, you have to acquire a license even to present your works on your own homepage (free until 31/12/2009, but there's no guarantee). That makes it hard especially for newcomers to market themselves.
• GEMA members report that their royalty statements are often not complete and that artists have to spend a lot of effort to get their money.
• The royalties are calculated in a way that lesser known artists receive almost nothing – even though the organizers of their concerts pay the same tariffs. Under certain conditions, tariffs have to be paid that the artists can never receive due to regulations.
• The GEMA terms and conditions are decided upon by the assembly of full members (members that earn more than a certain amount of money per year from GEMA). These happen to be those that profit most from GEMA financially…

Sign the petition at Deutscher Bundestag here (in German)