EU finally cuts through licensing red tape for digital music

17 July 2008

EU regulators ordered 24 music societies across Europe to modify or ditch their agreements that bar music services from selling or broadcasting music across borders, forcing those services to set up individual storefronts for each of the EU's member states that may or may not carry all the same content.

Also struck down: members must be allowed to switch to another society. Musicians are allowed now to join any society in Europe, not just in their own country. This does mean iTunes is going to take over. GEMA however can still impose fees to press vinyl (even though they give the money back to you later). But you can press records in other countries to avoid that. http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080716-eu-finally-cuts-through-licensing-red-tape-for-digital-music.html