Portrait (right)

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Rights to images or portraits concern the copyright to portraits or images , as it is regulated in Germany in § 60 UrhG .

In principle, images of persons may only be used if the author of the image or his legal successor agrees. However, a statue created in 1820, for example, is in the public domain because the sculptor has been dead for more than 70 years. (However, photos of the statue are copyrighted.)

For those who order a portrait and the person shown, the copyright law provides a special regulation in § 60 UrhG, which under certain circumstances enables him to use the picture without the consent of the copyright holder. However, the exceptions do not apply to use on the Internet .

Paragraph 1 stipulates: Duplication and the free distribution of a picture, not for commercial purposes, by the person ordering the picture or his legal successor or, in the case of a picture created to order, by the person depicted or, after his death, by his relatives or by a commissioned party one of these persons acting third parties. If the portrait is a work of the visual arts, use is only permitted by means of a photograph.

"The provision serves the interests of the customer resulting from the personal connection and - if he is not identical with this - also of the person shown, the pictorial representation of one or more people who arose from his order and / or shows himself, including himself to be able to reproduce and pass on to individual third parties free of charge, ”said the OLG Cologne in its judgment of December 19, 2003 (AZ: 6 U 91/03).

Section 60 restricts the rights of the author to the portraits of third parties made by him (photos, paintings, sculptures, etc., i.e. all representations on which people can be identified ), but it is an interpretation rule of copyright contract law. The author can therefore contractually agree with the customer that § 60 UrhG does not apply ( non-negotiability ). Conversely, the customer can of course also obtain a contractual guarantee that, for example, Internet publication is permitted.

Duplication means that the authorized persons (purchaser or person pictured) can have any number of copies made. If it is a work of the fine arts (e.g. a painting, a drawing or a sculpture), only photos (probably also photocopies) may be made and distributed. In the context of § 60 UrhG, you are not allowed to model a sculpture, repaint a painting or reprint a lithograph .

When distributing the image and its copies ( dissemination ) one must ensure that this is done free of charge and not for one's own commercial purposes. Essentially, the copies can only be given away. It is not allowed to distribute your own photo on promotional leaflets.

Since the right of public access is required for online use on the Internet as a sub-section of the right of communication to the public , but § 60 UrhG only privileges reproduction and distribution, images within the scope of § 60 UrhG may not be fed into the Internet or other data networks.

Those entitled to the provision are the purchaser, i.e. the person who orders the portrait, as well as the person depicted or, after his death, the relatives (according to paragraph 2, the spouse or partner and children or, if there is no spouse or partner or children are the parents ).

The OLG Cologne (see above) has forbidden a GmbH to advertise with the portrait of its managing director without the consent of the photographer, as the photographer can only refer to § 60 UrhG for his own private purposes.

Anyone who refers to § 60 UrhG and publishes his portrait or a picture ordered by him must of course still adhere to the regulations governing the right to his own picture in the KUG . So he cannot give his wedding picture to the daily newspaper unless the wife also shown agrees. It is a prerequisite that the publication in the daily newspaper has no commercial purpose of its own relating to the customer or the person shown, e.g. as part of editorial reporting on a golden wedding . The official reasoning from 2002, which was implemented in the 2003 amendment: A legitimate interest in exploiting a portrait without permission is only to be recognized insofar as it does not pursue any own economic purposes .

See also

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Copyright Act , on www.uryright.org, accessed on June 17, 2016