Over a thousand German bands and musicians have signed an open letter at thetrichoridst.com with a series of demands and calling on German politicians “not to interfere with our constitutionally protected intellectual property and not to use our copyright against us!”
You can read the open letter and see who signed it at the link. The list of signatories includes folks like Fabin Dammers of U.D.O., Klaus Meine and Rudolf Schenker of the Scorpions, KMFDM, Mille Petrozza of Kreator, Rammstein, and Rudolf Moser of Einstürzende Neubauten.
The letter seems to assume that the reader has an understanding of the issue, so fortunately Deutsche Welle has broken it down some. They spoke to some interested parties for the piece, one saying, “the current draft law would ‘disenfranchise’ and ‘expropriate’ music creators,” and that “that authors’ personal rights would be ‘sacrificed on the altar of supposed consumer protection.'”
The piece added that, “[t]he German musicians’ letter of protest is just the latest chapter in an ongoing and heated discussion about copyright reform in the European Union.”
Images: Kreator, from the back cover of Coma of Souls; Rammstein on the cover of Live Aus Berlin.
