Is there a nasty war about to explode between GEMA (the german collecting societies for music rights, also known as Gesellschaft für musikalische Aufführungs und mechanische Vervielfältigungsrechte, working hard to satisfy its 65.000 members) and german clubs ? Seems like it. Let see what the factions are...

Basically you have clubs who were paying up to now a steady rate at GEMA which is in charge for collecting the money and redistribute it to the rights owners. Starting from january 1st 2013, new rates will be applied and while it won't have much terrible effects on the smaller clubs or events, it could be rather devastating to the big clubs: the rates will integrate what kind of events it is, the surface of the place, how long will the event be for and the price for the tickets...When you know that some clubs have two floors, some of them are huge places, that the tickets are 10€ and the night is in fact 48 hours long, you can imagine what it does to an accountant...

For a small free happening, the GEMA fee could be around 80€ for a 200 square meter place which is not bad when you consider that right owners do need to get paid. But for big clubs, the...