Dutch copyright watchdog, BREIN, is being sued by a musician for more than $US1 million after allegedly using his song in copyright warnings on DVDs without explicit permission. Oh my.
Musician Melchior Rietveldt was asked by BREIN to compose the song for a local film festival, but the group went on to use the song on “tens of millions” of Dutch DVDs. Rietveldt had only allowed them use of the song for the festival and discovered they used it on DVDs only when he purchased a Harry Potter movie.
Rietveldt’s financial advisor estimates the value of the missing revenue to be around $US1.3 million. It’s an unfortunate situation for BREIN, but the case doesn’t stop there for Rietveldt.
Despite normally tough copyright laws in the Netherlands, Rietveldt is being given the run-around by royalty agencies. He’s even being asked give a portion of his profits over to the royalties group Buma/Stemra by the group’s board member Jochem Gerrits. That’s become quite the scandal. Gerrits is being accused of corrupt practices because his conversation with Rietveldt was recorded and has temporarily resigned to focus on his defence. The issue is still ongoing, and you can read the full explanation through the link below.
Copyright Corruption Scandal Surrounds Anti-Piracy Campaign [Torrent Freak]
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