True in Germany as well. You're just mixing the two separate issues. We did a documentary a year ago for EU market and we had to commission a cover of a song th

True in Germany as well. You're just mixing the two separate issues. We did a documentary a year ago for EU market and we had to commission a cover of a song that would be used as an intro for said documentary. It was explained to me that we don't need a permission to commission (make) a cover, and band that made the cover can perform that in their concerts, but we can't use it for commercial purpose (documentary) without asking for permission from original author since it's essentially the same as with original work. What we had to do, legally (and what we did), was to secure rights to use the original song for our commercial project (author and publisher waived royalties though, but doesn't matter), and then we also, in parallel, commissioned a cover from some band and we secured rights to that cover so we can use it. In a nutshell, cover is treated (it seems) like a reproduction. For example chopin's music is now royalty free and accessible for any purpose, but you need a reproduction rights from whoever has performed that. I am sure something is lost here in translation since english is not my first language, but I think you can get a clear idea from it.