I recently wrote about a petition to reform the German performance rights agency GEMA, and then found an interesting article in the Fontblog mentioning that the advertising agency Heye has won their lawsuit against GEMA after seven years.

The lawsuit was about Heye wanting to use advertising films they produced on their own website to market themselves. The German Federal Court of Law has now decided that for this kind of self-marketing, GEMA can demand neither disclosure nor fees.

I am curious to see what kind of positive impact that might have for musicians. GEMA members have to get licenses (that currently are free) in order to use their own music to promote themselves.

Some background information (in German) can be found at the GWA (Gesamtverband Kommunikationsagenturen) page, the organization that supported Heye in their lawsuit.