"German Bundestag eases copyright protection for scientific use"

After years of lobbying from the German education and science sector, the German parliament agreed to a relaxation of copyright for scientific purposes.

During a parliamentary hearing on copyright, members of the Bundestag have agreed to equip paragraph 52b of the German Copyright Act (§ 52b Urheberrechtsgesetz) with an extensive education and science exception. There will also be a proposal for a clause that allows a secondary exploitation right.

Libraries and universities complained about the high costs of joint publications, compilations and readers. They also suffer from strict contractual terms which apply to campus-wide licenses and the abrupt loss of access to information when licenses expire. The range of literature in the universities remains far behind the technical possibilities and the global standard of scientific communication, according to German universities. The editors of scientific publications have (obviously) resisted to possible restrictions on copyright protection to scientific literature.

The current law does, however, hinder the availability of publications through research networks. This, according to specialists from the field, is detrimental to the ability of schools to set up effective scientific cooperation. The Bundestag reached their conclusions partly on the advice of  a so-called Internet Survey Commission for Copyright - who was advising the government on the modernization of copyright in the digital age. One of their recommendations was that the possibility to use protected works for educational and research purposes should be broadened. This would enlarge access to knowledge, knowledge transfer and innovation in Germany. (See press release)

Sources: Institut fur Urheber- und Mediarecht (in German); Urheberrechtbuendnis.de (in German)