Copyright contract law
The copyright contract law standardizes the use of plants caused by the German copyright law are protected. It is the area of civil or private law that regulates the relationships between the author of a work and his contractual partners, to whom he can grant usage rights and exploitation rights (primarily by granting licenses in license agreements ). It is codified in the Copyright Act ( UrhG ) .
New version 2002
With the law to strengthen the contractual position of authors and performing artists of March 22nd (entry into force: July 1st ) 2002 , the German copyright contract law was revised after heated discussions between publishers , authors' associations and the federal government . In addition to the changes, additions and deletions of paragraphs of the Copyright Act, a standard of the Publishing Act (Section 28) has also been repealed. The three most important innovations are:
- the right to appropriate remuneration in accordance with § 32 UrhG;
- the “fairness compensation” derived from the previous so-called bestseller paragraph in § 32 a UrhG;
- the regulations for establishing common remuneration rules (§§ 36, 36 a UrhG).
The definition of when a work becomes a bestseller and the author therefore receives higher remuneration is no longer arbitrary, but fixed. The publishers are forced to draw up a kind of collective agreement for authoring services.
Before and after the introduction of the law, the discussion was very emotional, as the authors saw themselves being exploited and the publishing houses robbed of their profitability. The design of the common remuneration rules will probably only be possible through an arbitration committee .
In particular, the right to appropriate remuneration was specified by the courts in the years following the amendment. In 2013, the Federal Constitutional Court rejected complaints from publishers against the new regulation. This means that authors and translators can also demand a proportion of the proceeds commensurate with the success of a work in the event of great economic success .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ daily newspaper: Publishers are allowed to be checked , November 29, 2013
