FYI: New copyright law in Germany

[Henk Elegeert]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

http://www.edri.org/cgi-bin/index?funktion=edrigram

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New copyright law in Germany
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Today, 9 September 2004, the German minister of Justice
presented a cornerstone-paper on the so called 'second
basket' of copyright regulations, implementing the European
Copyright Directive (2001/29/EC).

The cornerstone-paper defines a clear right to make private
copies, even when ordered by a third party, and does not
require the original to be legal, though 'downloading works
that are apparently unlawfully distributed', is not allowed.
Also, in spite of rumours before the release, there are no
plans to give rights-holders the power to demand
name-address data from p2p-users from internet providers.

As generous as that might seem, the German digital rights
organisation NMN has issued a brief statement complaining
about the fact that the regulation will not allow people to
make a private copy if the material is protected with
technological measures.

"It is kind of absurd to talk about a right to make private
copies in the cornerstone-paper, if there is no chance to
exercise that right in reality. Since CDs come with
anti-copying measures, a written down law doesn't help the
user, if the disabling of copyright protection of these CDs
is outlawed at the same time", says Markus Beckedahl,
Chairman of the Network New Media. "Here, in our opinion, we
need corrections to maintain and extend the right to private
copies for consumers in the digital world ." Beckedahl
continued.

Another hotly debated issue in Germany was the proposed
expansion of copyright levies to include hard disks. The
ministry of Justice has now decided that "each device will
be charged with a levy, if it is actually used for a
considerable extent to make copies." CT quotes the Minister,
Brigitte Zypries, that this means a CD-burner will be
charged, but a digital photo camera probably not. The
phrasing is very flexible, and leaves it to equipment
manufacturers and copyright holders to determine exact
pricing schemes in a self-regulatory setting. The Ministry
of Justice has now given them 6 months time to work  out an
acceptable solution for hard disks, after that a court is
appointed to mediate.

Brief statement NNM (in German, 09.09.2004))
http://www.nnm-ev.de

Long explanation in CT (in German, 09.09.2004)
http://www.heise.de/ct/aktuell/meldung/50805
"

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