[badestrand]

For some reason Germany has a history of being super hard on any possible undermining of copyright on music. Notably the ban on all public WiFi (!) until recently for fear of people illegally downloading music anonymously and 3rd parties being able to impose penalties on everyone who uses file sharing platforms ("Abmahnung").

[hulitu]

As a dead comment said, they have GEMA which makes profits from this. Also it seems that some kind of blackmail is legal in Germany with Inkasso companies (some kind of legal money recover agencies) demanding money from people in the name of movie companies/GEMA.

[DocTomoe]

When you write about "blackmail", you are refering to the "Abmahnung" process - essentially a cease-and-desist letter, which can involve lawyers fees, and a contract in which you - if you sign it - pledge to pay a high amount of money if you do go back to your infringing ways. If you do not sign, they will consider suing you.

It is meant to prevent preventable lawsuits (which would be a lot more expensive), but has been weaponised by lawyer firms specialising in copyright enforcement. After a few of these law firms were countersued for inconsistent claims, the law about Abmahnungen was tightened a bit.

I have yet to see an Abmahnung benefitting the GEMA. Law firms usually work for studios.

[bserge]

The organization has a proud history lol

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/GEMA_(German_organization)