Germany’s Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof) in Karlsruhe has ruled that a license from the country’s performance rights organization Gema is sufficient only for those hoping to create a ringtone from tracks registered with the society after 2002, Billboardbiz reports. The court ruled that GEMA composers did not grant all of the rights necessary to create ringtones in an authorization agreement created in 1996. Rights to digital versions of the track did extend, however, in subsequent agreements created in 2002 and 2005.

The case came about when German composer Frank Kretschmer sued Swiss Telemedia Services for creating a ringtone from his song “Rock My Life,” sung by German artist Jeannette Biedermann. Telemedia acquired a license for the song, released in 2002, after which they created a ringtone from it. But Kretschmer argued his agreement with GeMA didn’t extend to ringtones.