FBI Investigates German PRO Gema

Online, December 12, 2013 (Newswire.com) - The Walton International Business Group (WIBG), owner of the SoniXCast, SoniXTalk and SoniXHost brands, confirmed today that the FBI Cyber Crimes division IC3 is investigating the German Performance Rights Organization (PRO) Gema (Gesellschaft für musikalische Aufführungs- und mechanische Vervielfältigungsrechte) for their involvement in cyber-attacks perpetrated by the German Hacker Group OOC "Outbreak of Crime" against SoniXCast in June and October 2013.

Emails were submitted as evidence in which Gema Boss Dr. Harald Henker and members of OOC discussed techniques for taking down SoniXCast Servers. Marcel Bößendörfer is one of the managing directors of marbis.net, a long time competitor and outspoken detractor of SoniXCast who also runs the OOC website (http://www.frassellp.de/ooc/) where he coaches misguided minors on how to break into computer systems.

Since the attacks occurred on US soil, diverse US government law enforcement and data collection agencies are involved in investigating the attacks which caused service interruption for roughly 2000 SoniXCast customers for 6 days in June 2013 and 5 days in October 2013. WIBG CEO Brian Walton confirmed that the investigation was thus far successful in backtracking the attacks to a 15 year old member of Bößendörfer's Hacker Group.

In addition to the emails, a "Hit List" prepared by long time SoniXCast detractor Udo Poschen was submitted into evidence. The list contains the names and addresses of SoniXCast customers who were subsequently harassed and email evidence confirms that the list was shared with Gema as well as with members of Bößendörfer's Hacker Group who used the information to intimidate SoniXCast customers both at home and through social media channels.

Since 2006, Sony Partner, SoniXCast has been the largest worldwide provider of wholesale multimedia hosting services. The controversy surrounding the SoniXCast license model which takes advantage of the liberal licensing laws in Canada and which do not explicitly prohibit broadcasting across international boundaries, has long been a source of contention for Gema and competitors in Germany.

Gema, which changed its name in 1947 from STAGMA (Staatlich genehmigten Gesellschaft zur Verwertung musikalischer Aufführungsrechte) in order to avoid compensating Jewish Artists for their publications, recently suffered a huge blow by the EU in which was concluded that they may not collect licensing fees for works covered under the Creative Commons license. Additionally Gema was stripped of monopolistic control, opening the door to free enterprise which resulted in a huge loss in revenue for the fledging PRO.

Gema has long been criticized for their exorbitant fees and unfair collection methods which has been fueling public disapproval all over Europe. This behavior allows providers like SoniXCast to move in and offer highly competitive pricing as they are not subject to expensive Gema licensing fees.