Copyright infringement

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This article or paragraph presents the situation in Germany . Help us to describe the situation in other countries.

A black copy shop in Thailand

A copyright infringement is a violation of copyrights .

This usually means a violation of the exploitation rights defined in German copyright law or the appropriation of a third-party work under one's own name ( plagiarism ). A frequent violation consists in an illegally produced or distributed copy of copyrighted - mostly electronic - media. These copies are based on the centuries-old concept of piracy often bootleg called. There is also the colloquial term black copy, meaning an illegal copy that violates copyright law. The media can be films , songs , books , computer programs , databases, or other copyrighted material. The author or the rights holder is not paid , which usually has to be done when buying a legal copy.

Other copyright violations can include, for example, changing a work or its title. Unauthorized editing or redesign of a work is also a violation of copyright.

Historically, copyright infringement is a relatively new phenomenon, as copyright only achieved protection today in the 20th century. Previously were z. B. copying or reprinting books, the adoption of songs by a singer by the general public or other musicians, the development of a narrative by various authors in different directions, relatively normal processes that were tolerated to a certain extent. In principle, there was only a right of ownership to the material carriers - e.g. B. on a book as an object - not on the content. However, the term plagiarism has long existed , for example, referring to the adoption of foreign texts and could be outlawed accordingly.

With new technologies, the economic consequences of unlawful copying took on ever greater dimensions. Particularly noteworthy is the copying of digital source material, which has also been easily possible in the private environment since the 1990s , which allows a 1-to-1 copy without a reduction in quality with little time and material expenditure. At the same time, however, copyright infringements have become more easily verifiable.

Legal position

Criminal liability

The illicit exploitation of copyrighted works may bid or imprisonment or fines entail. The corresponding penalty and fine regulations result from §§ 106–111a UrhG . There are now many copyright violations on the Internet. Duplication activities typical of the internet within the meaning of Section 106 UrhG are the streaming and downloading of music files and the copying of longer text passages. To this extent, however, §§ 44a, 53 para. 1 UrhG must be observed. Prosecution usually requires a criminal complaint ( Section 109 UrhG).

If technical protective measures are circumvented exclusively for one's own private use within the meaning of § 53 Paragraph 1 UrhG, this is not punishable under § 108b Paragraph 1 UrhG. There is no express penal provision for this.

Injunction

The rights holders can issue warnings for a fee . This is an out-of-court injunction. In order to avoid the risk of repetition, a declaration of cease and desist is requested. If this is done by a lawyer, the warned person must bear the legal fees, unless the warning is not justified. In a simple case, with an insignificant legal violation and without commercial interest, the legal fees are limited to an object value of 1000 euros in accordance with Section 97a (3) UrhG . Without submitting a declaration of cease and desist, an injunction can be applied for in urgent cases or an injunction can be brought.

License fee

In Germany, the rights holder has a claim for damages against the infringer. This is usually based on the appropriate license fee; Section 97 . In the case of illegal use of photos, damage according to the fee list of the Mittelstandsgemeinschaft Foto-Marketing is regularly assumed; this is controversial in jurisprudence, especially in the case of copyright infringement by consumers. For articles, the remuneration rules of the German Association of Journalists prevail as licenses that are customary in the market. It should be noted, however, that the license fees of the associations may not be applied as a quasi-law, but must still be measured against the market and appropriateness.

Private copy

Making a copy for private purposes is usually not illegal. This does not apply to downloads via peer-to-peer networks if the file provided there is unlawful on the network. See more under file sharing .

While the making of copies for private use is permitted in Germany ( § 53 UrhG ) and Austria (§ 42 UrhG ) under certain conditions, the distribution of copies is in almost all (e.g. not in Antigua and Barbuda , Netherlands Antilles ) Countries of the world prohibited by law, violations of intellectual property law can be legally prosecuted and punished. However, in practice in many countries (especially in Russia, Southeast Asia and Africa) the spread is not actively pursued. The legal situation in Austria is broadly similar to that in Germany. With regard to schools and universities in Austria, Section 42 (6) UrhG stipulates that they may produce and distribute copies in the number “required” for a certain school class or course for the purposes of teaching or teaching to the extent justified thereby; this also applies to musical notes. The universities pay the remuneration through the reprography remuneration in the special form of the operator remuneration (§ 42b para. 2 no. 2 UrhG).

Entertainment media

In order to counter the illegal and free use of file sharing networks with a legal alternative, the music industry is now making its own download offers available that enable customers to download licensed music to their computers. Various copy protection procedures have been introduced for audio CDs , which are intended to prevent the duplication and distribution of music. However, since these procedures violate the technical specifications of audio CDs, legally purchased CDs cannot be played on some devices or computers. These CDs no longer correspond to the specifications for compact discs agreed and defined in the Red Book and are therefore not audio CDs that conform to the standard and so often cause additional displeasure among paying customers.

The question of whether dubbing copy-protected CDs via the analog output represents a circumvention of copy protection is controversial. In numerous magazines it is presented as a permitted option, since analog playback corresponds to the intended use of an audio CD.

In order to prevent unauthorized recording of cinema films, cinema operators are increasingly using night vision devices to track down people with video cameras . However, screeners are also often illegally copied.

Technical means

In order to get to almost all popular films, pieces of music and games free of charge, most common file sharing programs or the IRC network are used. The film and music industry is therefore trying to ban file sharing and the software used . However, some file sharing sites are organized on a decentralized basis, so that in practice it is not possible to enforce such a ban; In addition, providers of file sharing platforms argue that they are only the intermediaries of data and that a large part of the data traffic can be traced back to legal content such as free software. One could just as well ban the post, which among other things also delivers stolen goods.

The problem for the manufacturers of commercial software is that there is no unavoidable copy protection. Numerous so-called cracker groups usually bring out the appropriate serial number or a crack shortly after the release of new programs . Cracks usually exchange original files or change them slightly - with the aim of overcoming copy protection.

Another technique for circumventing copy protection procedures is CD-ROM emulators . For this purpose, an image of the original CD is generated. This can be stored on any data carrier and also distributed globally or locally, for example via the Internet or LAN . These images can then be integrated into the system using a virtual CD-ROM drive. The program is thus led to believe that the original CD is in a CD-ROM drive. There are now copy protection procedures that require the deinstallation of such CD emulators before the copy-protected program can be started, which is problematic because such emulators can also be used for other purposes. Checking for such programs can also be bypassed with various programs, so-called "anti-blacklisting tools", which either try to hide the emulation or to manipulate the copy-protected program.

Copy protection bypass

Copies of copy-protected data carriers are not permitted. As soon as a copy lock is available or "effective", this must not be bypassed, not even if the pieces of music are converted to MP3 in order to use them e.g. B. to play on an MP3 player. When copy protection can be described as "effective" has not yet been determined beyond doubt.

The direct circumvention of the copy protection to create a private copy is prohibited, but not punishable. However, in such cases the rights holder can assert claims for damages against the creator of the copies.

Recording from the television is safe. DVDs are for the most part protected by the Content Scramble System (CSS). Analog recordings are allowed as long as B. DVDs are not protected by Macrovision .

Private copies of copy-protected digital media may therefore be made legally, with the exceptions mentioned, via the detour of analog recording, via playback. It is not forbidden to record the playback of a DVD or music CD and then burn this material again as a DVD or CD. These can also be passed on to friends and acquaintances.

As part of the second amendment to copyright law, this possibility of legal copying is to be changed in such a way that an analogue copy can also lead to claims for damages by the rights holder.

Copy protection mechanisms of audio CDs often only work in connection with a certain software or operating system (mostly Windows ).

Bypassing copy protection mechanisms does not always have to be done on purpose. Sometimes this is an unwanted side effect of using very inexpensive hardware. The copy protection High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection is removed, for example, by using various inexpensive HDMI splitters, which are supposed to distribute the signal from one source to several screens. A recording through commercially available hardware, which is also used to record so-called Let's Plays of console games, is possible without any problems and often even in full HD quality.

Copyright Infringement on the Internet

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The Internet makes it easier to exchange data and, due to its international nature, through the large number of applicable copyright laws, it makes copyright infringements easier.

With the spread of the Internet, anonymization services such as proxy servers and virtual private networks (VPNs) offer the possibility of illegally distributing copyrighted works without proving the respective user who uses the anonymization provider for distribution upon request. These anonymization providers are mostly located in countries with very liberal internet law. For example, some German Tor servers hold works that are illegally protected by copyright. Although they could not prove that they are not the source of this data, but only forward it and could not prove the source, the providers have so far not had to be liable. The police were visibly overwhelmed by the situation, which led, for example, to the confiscation of some Tor servers in order to find out the source themselves, which they could not do because of the technology used.

Protected works are also illegally distributed via sharehosters . According to a judgment of the LG Düsseldorf, RapidShare is liable for all copyright infringements that its users commit as a disruptor . In addition, the company is obliged to take the necessary measures to prevent copyright infringement (obligation to examine).

Protected works from abroad can be kept, since the Internet is generally available worldwide, for which the copyright of the respective other country is not recognized. It is therefore difficult to enforce national law. One idea is not to sue these foreign providers, but to block their servers in the national network. However, this is not used in Germany. Some critics refer to the blocking of servers as internet censorship .

Since copyright holders are unable to enforce their rights for the reasons mentioned, they use technical copy protection measures as a way out, which are intended to prevent unauthorized persons from using copies of the data.

developments

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Even massive prosecution of perpetrators and precedents such as those in the USA against Jammie Thomas or Joel Tenenbaum do not deter most users; the popularity of file sharing networks continues to grow. With such a mass phenomenon, it is almost impossible for law enforcement officers to punish the majority of violations - prosecuting large groups of the population is neither politically enforceable nor practically feasible. For this reason, law enforcement mostly focuses on people who trade in illegal copies on a large scale and sometimes get rich in the millions, not on those who apparently only copy on a small scale for their own use.

In the meantime, however, specially developed software is used that automatically logs copyright infringements in file sharing networks and forwards them to the law enforcement authorities. For the first time, criminal charges were filed against many thousands of users at the same time. The latter with the aim of accessing the identities of the perpetrators via criminal charges in order to be able to prosecute them under civil law, cf. File sharing . To counteract further criminalizing populations demanding organization like Attac a culture flat rate , which for a particular mite legalized such copying, comparable to the compensation scheme to photocopying of VG Wort .

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Product piracy  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: Copyright infringement  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ §§ 106 ff. UrhG
  2. ↑ BVerfG, decision of July 25, 2005 - 1 BvR 2182/04 para. 14 mwN
  3. ↑ cf. BGH I ZR 266/02 [1]
  4. ^ Walter Brugger : The school and university privilege . On: dorda.at
  5. ↑ A first judgment of the LG Frankfurt can be found online (PDF).