Easily digestible tech news... http://www.techdirt.com/ en-us http://www.techdirt.com/images/td-88x31.gifhttp://www.techdirt.com/ Thu, 30 Dec 2010 10:13:34 PST Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101230/02503212466/gema-music-collection-society-no-longer-will-let-kindergartens-get-away-with-teaching-music-free.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101230/02503212466/gema-music-collection-society-no-longer-will-let-kindergartens-get-away-with-teaching-music-free.shtml the schools now need to pay up (found via Slashdot). In the last few weeks, GEMA started sending out notices to these facilities, warning them to either pay up or no longer hand out sheets with music on it to students. This seems reminiscent of ASCAP demanding that Girl Scouts pay up for singing songs around the campfire. These collection societies have really gotten desperate lately, and now they're trying to shake down kindergarten students for cash. How nice of them.

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]]> ownership-society http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20101230/02503212466 Mon, 6 Oct 2008 19:07:36 PDT Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20081006/0052502461.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20081006/0052502461.shtml illegally demanded 10 euros per child (later reduced to 3 euros) from Irish kindergartens, for the right to watch DVDs in class. It turns out that the whole thing was illegal, as it violated a copyright act in Ireland by not filing for a license to collect royalty revenue (it has since filed for the license). In the meantime, the folks who run these schools are a bit annoyed by the whole thing, noting that they rarely, if ever, show DVDs anyway and don't see why they should have to pay a fee per student. In fact, one educator noted that the only time they showed DVDs was when they would "pretend" to go to the cinema -- and even that would likely lead kids to eventually want to go see more movies.

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