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In its original version, the
bill provided compulsory licensing for the reproduction of the
smallest excerpt of an online newspaper article on an online
aggregator's website. But a few days before this bill was to be
debated in the German “Bundestag”, it was changed profoundly.
Under the current version of the new copyright law the reproduction
of single words or of smallest excerpts of text shall be allowed
without any licensing agreement. Therefore, the new copyright law
largely lost its original purpose to let the online newspaper
publishers participate on the profits generated by using excerpts of
their online articles on online aggregator's websites.
As a result, both, lawmakers
and the concerned online companies are strenuously discussing the
value of the new law. It passed the German “Bundestag” by only
293 to 243 votes.
Most of those affected by
the new copyright law don't estimate it being a thorough success.
Though the enlargement of the online publishers' rights isn't as
considerable as in the original version of the bill, the Federation
of German Newspapers Publishers hopes that online publishers will now
be enabled to better determine the conditions under which their
online articles are provided by other websites.
Online aggregators, however,
feel uncertain about the interpretation of “a smallest excerpt of
text”. As a result, it is very likely that legal disputes between
online newspaper publishers and online aggregators will occur.
Author: Cornelia Heim / Rechtsreferendarin, Charlotte Office
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