Last year, Buma/Stemra, the Dutch music copyright organisation, started to send out invoices to hosts of private as well as of commercial websites which displayed embedded videos obliging them to pay EUR 26 and EUR 65 per month respectively for the displaying of these videos. This initiative was heavily criticised which eventually led to Buma/Stemra withdrawing its plans.
Now however, Buma/Stemra has decided to restart the public debate on the possibility of imposing copyright remunerations on the placement of embedded videos on websites by announcing that these remunerations will be payable if the embedded videos are placed on a commercial website.
Private individuals who have placed an embedded video on their own weblog, for example, are thus not required to pay the copyright remuneration. The same applies to commercial websites who merely provide a link to a certain video. Only in the situation where an embedded video is placed on a commercial website (e.g. a website on which advertisements are placed around the embedded video) will a copyright remuneration be payable.
The rates of the copyright remunerations as well as the date of commencement of these remunerations will be announced on the website of Buma/Stemra (http://www.bumastemra.nl/en-US/Home.htm) in February.
