BUMA/STEMRA are two private organisations in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

, the Buma Association ( Dutch: ''Vereniging Buma'') and the Stemra Foundation ( Dutch: ''Stichting Stemra'') that operate as one single company that acts as the Dutch

collecting society A copyright collective (also known as a copyright society, copyright collecting agency, licensing agency or copyright collecting society or collective management organization) is a non-governmental body created by copyright law or private agreeme ...

for

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

s and

music publisher A music publisher is a type of publisher that specializes in distributing music. Music publishers originally published sheet music. When copyright became legally protected, music publishers began to play a role in the management of the intellectu ...

History

The Buma Association was set up by Dutch music authors and publishers in 1913, one year after the Dutch Copyright Act was passed. In 1936, with the arrival of the

gramophone record A phonograph record (also known as a gramophone record, especially in British English) or a vinyl record (for later varieties only) is an analog sound storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove. The g ...

, the replication of music multiplied. Realising its impact, the members of the Buma Association created the Stemra Foundation, which focuses on the replication of recorded works of music, ranging from LPs to CDs to Internet and mobile phones. In 2001, Buma/Stemra sued Consumer Empowerment, then the owners of

Kazaa Kazaa Media Desktop ( ) (once stylized as "KaZaA", but later usually written "Kazaa") was a peer-to-peer file sharing application using the FastTrack protocol licensed by Joltid Ltd. and operated as Kazaa by Sharman Networks. Kazaa was subsequ ...

in the Netherlands. The court ordered Kazaa's owners to take steps to prevent its users from violating copyrights or else pay a heavy fine. In October 2001 a lawsuit was filed against Consumer Empowerment by members of the music and motion picture industry in the United States. In response Consumer Empowerment sold the Kazaa application to Sharman Networks, which is headquartered in Australia and incorporated in Vanuatu. In late March 2002, a Dutch court of appeals reversed an earlier judgment and stated that Kazaa was not responsible for the actions of its users. Buma/Stemra lost its appeal before the

Supreme Court of the Netherlands The Supreme Court of the Netherlands ( or simply ''Hoge Raad''), officially the High Council of the Netherlands, is the final court of appeal in civil, criminal and tax cases in the Netherlands, including Curaçao, Sint Maarten and Aruba. Th ...

in December 2003.

References

External links

Buma/Stemra Official site
1913 establishments in the Netherlands Organizations established in 1913 Music organisations based in the Netherlands Music licensing organizations Copyright collection societies {{music-org-stub