Copyrights in Germany put to the test

The German Cultural Council is pleased that, according to the text that has now been adopted, collecting societies are to promote culturally significant works and performances and set up pension and support schemes for their beneficiaries. The draft bill still contained an optional provision.

The German Cultural Council also considers the proposed provision on the provision of security to be positive in order to ensure that manufacturers and importers of devices and storage media meet their remuneration obligations even after protracted legal disputes.

According to the statement from the Cultural Council, however, it is regrettable that there are still plans to force members of supervisory bodies to disclose sensitive personal data or, with regard to companies, information relevant to competition. It is also a pity that the collecting societies should publish the overall agreements concluded on their websites. This would ultimately mean that business secrets would have to be disclosed.

The Cultural Council particularly regrets that the VGG "missed the opportunity to clarify publisher participation in the remuneration of collecting societies". According to Olaf Zimmermann, Managing Director of the German Cultural Council, a solution must be found above all for the "publisher's share in the income of the collecting societies based on rights of use or statutory remuneration claims", which has been pending for years.