Law to adapt copyright law to the requirements of the digital single market

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Basic data
Title: Law to adapt copyright law to the requirements of the digital single market
Shortcut: UrhBiMaG (not official)
Type: Federal law
Scope: Federal Republic of Germany
Legal matter: Internet law
Issued on: May 20, 2021
Effective on: June 7, 2021
(UrhDaG: August 1, 2021)
( BGBl. 2021 I p. 1204 )
Weblink: Text of the UrhBiMaG
Text of the UrhDaG
Please note the note on the applicable legal version.

The law to adapt copyright law to the requirements of the digital single market is intended to implement the directives (EU) 2019/789 and 2019/790 that were created in the course of the EU copyright reform of 2019 into German law. The key points are the introduction of upload filters and ancillary copyright for press publishers .

The German Bundestag passed the federal government's draft on May 20, 2021 with the votes of the Union and the SPD , with the Greens abstaining and against the votes of the FDP , AfD and the Left . The Federal Council approved the law (which does not require approval ) on May 28, 2021. It came into force on June 7, 2021. Germany is thus implementing the EU directives on time at the last possible date. The new Copyright Service Provider Act (UrhDaG) came into force on August 1, 2021.

History of origin

First draft discussion

The Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection (BMJV) published a first draft discussion in January 2020. The draft discussion should first regulate the ancillary copyrights for press publishers . The BMJV suggested that the ancillary copyright should not apply to "the private or non-commercial use of a press publication by individual users, the setting of hyperlinks to a press publication and the use of individual words or very short excerpts from a press publication" (Section 87g (2) UrhG-E). Here, “individual words or very short excerpts from an article in a press release” should include “the headline, a small-format preview image with a resolution of up to 128 by 128 pixels and a tone sequence, image sequence or image and tone sequence with a duration of up to three Seconds "(§ 87g paragraph 3 UrhG-E).

Second draft discussion

On June 24, 2020, the BMJV published a second draft discussion. Among other things, the enactment of a copyright service provider law (UrhDaG) was proposed, which for "service providers" who "pursue it as their main purpose [...] to save a large amount of copyrighted content uploaded by third parties and make them publicly accessible to make "(§ 2 paragraph 1 number 1 UrhDaG-E), should apply. Two types of legally permitted uses have been defined for the publication of copyrighted works on their platforms:

  • Machine- verifiable legally permitted uses (§ 6 UrhDaG-E): These are uses for non-commercial purposes of up to 20 seconds per film or motion picture , up to 20 seconds per audio track, up to 1000 characters per text and per photo or a graphic with a data volume of up to 250 kilobytes .

In order to implement these legally permitted uses, the service provider must enable users to mark an upload as "legally permitted" ("pre-flagging"; Section 8 (1) UrhDaG-E), except in cases in which such a mark is "obviously inapplicable" is (§ 8 paragraph 2 UrhDaG-E). This is particularly the case as soon as the “uploaded content corresponds to at least 90 percent with the information provided by the rights holder” (Section 12 UrhDaG-E). In addition, the service provider should pay the author an “appropriate remuneration” for uses that are within the de minimis limits for machine-verifiable, legally permissible uses (Section 7 (2) UrhDaG-E).

The draft also stipulated that if a rights holder so requested and he had "made the necessary information available", the service provider would not only have to remove illegal content, but would also have to block it for future use (§§ 10 and 11 UrhDaG- E) and that service providers would have to make greater efforts to obtain usage licenses (Section 4 UrhDaG-E).

The draft also said that it would prevent the use of filter technologies as much as possible .

Draft bill

On October 13, 2020, the ministry presented a draft bill, on which various associations issued statements.

Bill

On February 3, 2021, the federal government passed a draft law for the law to adapt copyright law to the requirements of the digital single market , which, in addition to changes to the copyright law to introduce a press publisher's ancillary copyright, also contains the new copyright service provider law.

The exceptions for the use of preview images with a resolution of up to 128 × 128 pixels as well as headings and video and music excerpts of up to three seconds in length within the framework of the press publisher's ancillary copyright are no longer included in the draft law. However, “the private or non-commercial use of a press release by individual users”, “the setting of hyperlinks to a press release” and “the use of individual words or very short excerpts from a press release” should remain permitted .

Compared to the second draft discussion, the de minimis limits for the non-commercial use of works on platforms such as YouTube or WhatsApp within the framework of the Copyright Service Provider Act have been reduced to “up to 15 seconds per film or motion picture”, “up to 15 seconds per audio track "," Up to 160 characters each of a text "as well as photos or graphics" with a data volume of up to 125 kilobytes "(The trivial rule does not apply to one's own homepage, for example, material that is only published under the de minimis rule falls, continues to be inadmissible). In addition, material within the de minimis limits, as well as material that has been marked as legally permitted by “pre-flagging”, is now only allowed to be subject to public reproduction (“presumably permitted use”) “less than half of a work by a third party or several works by third parties contain ”(except for images) and must have been combined with“ other content ”. In addition, the platform operators have to inform the rights holders "immediately" about the public communication of allegedly permitted uses, so that they can lodge a complaint if this is not a use within the framework of quotations, caricatures, parodies, pastiche or "legally permitted cases of the public communication according to Part 1 Section 6 of the Copyright Act ”. The “pre-flagging” of uploads was also contrasted with the concept of a “red button” with which “trustworthy rights holders” can prevent the public reproduction of works that fall within the range of presumably permitted use, if this “the economic exploitation of the work significantly impaired ".

On March 26, 2021, the Federal Council adopted an opinion on the federal government's draft law, in which it was welcomed in principle. On the same day, the draft law was debated for the first time in the Bundestag. Parliamentarians from all opposition parties accused the federal government of having broken the promise made in the coalition agreement and in the protocol declaration made in the EU Council not to introduce any upload filters or to “prevent them if possible”.

Adoption of the law

On May 20, 2021, the Bundestag passed the law to adapt copyright law to the requirements of the digital single market, which contains ancillary copyright for press publishers as well as the new copyright service provider law. The law was passed with the votes of the grand coalition of CDU / CSU and SPD, the FDP, the Left and the AfD voted against it, the Greens abstained. The law was approved by the Federal Council on May 28, 2021.

Compared to the draft law, the final version made it clear that quotations remain free of charge even within the scope of the Copyright Service Provider Act and that service providers are exempted from their copyright liability for the period of public communication of allegedly permitted uses during an ongoing complaint procedure. Furthermore, a clause has been inserted, according to which the upload of films or moving images (especially broadcasts of sporting events) can be blocked without restriction until the completion of their first public reproduction at the request of the rights holder.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ New rules for "uploading" user-generated content: Copyright is being comprehensively reformed. German Federal Government, May 28, 2021, accessed on May 28, 2021 .
  2. ↑ Countries approve far-reaching amendments to copyright law. Top 69 Copyright. Federal Council, May 28, 2021, accessed on May 28, 2021 .
  3. ↑ Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection : Draft of a first law to adapt copyright law to the requirements of the digital single market. (PDF) draft discussion. January 15, 2020, accessed January 10, 2021 .
  4. ↑ Helen Bielawa: Copyright reform: Draft provides for narrow exceptions. In: t3n. January 20, 2020, accessed February 2, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection : Draft of a second law to adapt copyright law to the requirements of the digital single market. (PDF) draft discussion. June 24, 2020, accessed January 10, 2021 .
  6. ↑ Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection : Draft of a second law to adapt copyright law to the requirements of the digital single market. Justification for § 6 UrhDaG. P. 35 , accessed on February 10, 2021 : "The regulation also corresponds to requirements that were expressed in the context of the final deliberations on Article 17 of the DSM-RL in the political arena (see in particular the position paper of the Christian Democratic Union of March 16, 2019 ). It is in accordance with the declaration by Germany in the adoption of the DSM-RL of April 15, 2019 under item 12 - 7986/19 ADD 1 REV 2, available here and thus contributes to the use of filter technologies and the over-blocking caused thereby impede."
  7. ↑ Bill presented for the implementation of the EU copyright directives. In: bmjv.de. BMJV , October 13, 2020, accessed on February 5, 2021 .
  8. ↑ Copyright is being reformed. New rules for "uploading". In: bundesregierung.de. Federal Government (Germany) , February 3, 2021, accessed February 8, 2021 .
  9. ^ Act to adapt copyright law to the requirements of the digital single market. Legislative process. In: bmjv.de. BMJV , February 3, 2021, accessed on February 9, 2021 .
  10. ^ Stefan Krempl: Copyright reform: Federal government approves upload filter and lock button. In: Heise online . February 3, 2021, accessed February 11, 2021 .
  11. ↑ Stefan Krempl: Copyright: Federal Council makes friends with upload filters. In: Heise online . March 26, 2021, accessed March 27, 2021 .
  12. ↑ Friedhelm Greis: Uploadfilter: Opposition criticizes breach of coalition agreement. In: Golem.de . March 26, 2021, accessed March 27, 2021 .
  13. ^ Stefan Krempl: Copyright reform: Bundestag votes for upload filters and ancillary copyright law. In: Heise online . May 20, 2021, accessed June 9, 2021 .
  14. ↑ Stefan Krempl: Federal Council waves rules for upload filters, cookies and robotic cars. In: Heise online . May 28, 2021, accessed June 9, 2021 .