GEMA Order Pensioners to Cancel Their Tea Party
Pensioners in Dusselfdorf have been forced to scrap their free afternoon tea dances, after notoriously greedy German collection agency GEMA demanded the venue increase royalty payments from €50 to €150 a month.
According to press reports in Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung and the Local.de, up to 35 previously isolated senior citizens had taken to gathering at the Hotel Sportforum in Kaarst-Büttgen once a month to drink tea, eat buns and shuffle around to swing jazz, played live by the hotel pianist. Their pleasure ended abruptly, however, when a GEMA official ‘spotted a poster advertising the free event and smelt a rat,’ said theLocal.de. (http://bit.ly/WeO618 )
Justifying GEMA’s decision to try and squeeze more money from the unfortunate old people, GEMA spokesman Gabi Schilcher was blunt.
“Elderly people “should dance, preferably every day,” she conceded, “but the owners of the music also have a right to get paid,” she added.
GEMA attracted further media interest this week when they decided to block the globally massive Youtube clip showing the meteor which exploded over Russia, captured by a driver whose car camera picked up the fireball as it exploded in the sky.
““I don’t remember a song” you might be saying. “Why not just watch a Russian meteor video without a soundtrack?” you reason,” Inquisitr.com pointed out,
“Well that’s the kicker. The song in question is in every version of the video because it’s playing on the car radio in the background.”
Jonty Skrufff: http://listn.to/JontySkrufff