Germany Calling
As an expat, an avid YouTube user, and a resident of Germany, I can tell you that GEMA has already gone way too far. Sure, according to German law they are winning, but they are losing the hearts and minds of the people here.
It already seems that half of YouTube is blocked in Germany. I imagine that implementing this most recent victory will block even more.
I don't listen to commercial music on YouTube. I'm usually interested in random videos that involve people talking, but when there is even a short snippet of a song from one of GEMA's artists, the entire video is blocked.
I have bookmarked some of these banned videos and played them when visiting other more enlightened countries. Often, I cannot discern anything musical playing in the videos at all. This makes me think that Google's algorithms are already generating false positives matching GEMA content, blocking more of YouTube than is absolutely necessary.
I did not even know that GEMA existed until I tried to access YouTube in Germany, but I hate them with a passion now for how they have managed to mutilate YouTube into frustrating uselessness. If punishing German residents is their business model, then I hope that GEMA fails sooner rather than later.
If I were a German citizen, I would vote for the Pirate Party in any upcoming state or federal election to help put an end to this GEMA nonsense.