Sample Procedure German Digital Library
Press release from 09/13/2021
Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe hears case on framing technology
After the European Court of Justice (ECJ) issued its judgement in the preliminary ruling proceedings (case no.: C-392/19) on the interpretation of the term "communication to the public" under copyright law at the beginning of March, the case was heard orally again yesterday before the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe (case no.: I ZR 113/18). The latter had initiated the ECJ proceedings in 2019 in order to obtain clarity regarding the interpretation of certain European law standards.
This clarity in the interpretation of the law now exists thanks to the ECJ judgement. In principle, authors can demand that the works they have created, if they are shown on the internet as a preview image under a corresponding licence, are protected by technical measures against third parties embedding these images in another website via a frame or inline link. It has not yet been clarified whether a collecting society may make such technical measures a blanket requirement for the licensing of such preview images without an express mandate from the represented authors. The question of the reasonableness of the implementation of said technical measures also still needs to be clarified in detail. Consequently, it was also these two issues that essentially characterised yesterday's hearing.
The legal dispute, which has rightly been declared a "test case", is being conducted between the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation as the organisation responsible for the German Digital Library (DDB) and the collecting society Bild-Kunst (VG Bild-Kunst). Both sides have argued their respective positions before the I. Civil Senate of the Federal Court of Justice, which is responsible for copyright law. In the end, the Senate indicated that, after preliminary deliberations, the tendency was that further findings of fact would have to be made in order to be able to reach a final decision on the merits.
However, such factual findings can only be made by the court of first instance, in this case the Court of Appeal in Berlin. There are therefore many indications that the Federal Court of Justice will refer the proceedings back to Berlin. There, the parties will be given the opportunity to make further submissions on the issues relevant to the decision and, if necessary, to provide evidence.
For the time being, however, the First Civil Senate has set a date of 29 July 2021 for the announcement of a decision. It remains to be seen whether it will be the referral decision expected by all parties after the course of the oral proceedings.
The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, as the sponsor of the German Digital Library, is being represented in the proceedings by Dr Nils Rauer, MJI (Pinsent Masons, Frankfurt) and BGH lawyer Peter Wassermann.
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The German Digital Library networks the digital collections of cultural and knowledge institutions in Germany and makes them centrally accessible. It offers everyone free access via the Internet to digitised museum objects, books, pieces of music, monuments, films, documents and many other cultural treasures. The German Digital Library acts as a network, linking and presenting the digital offerings of its partners and contributing to the democratisation of knowledge and resources.
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