In a ruling on April 13, 2017, the Munich Higher Regional Court (case no.: 6 U 3515/12) ruled that YouTube does not have to delete the recordings of Marlene Dietrich at a concert in London in 1972. It thus dismissed the lawsuit brought by the company Marlene Dietrich Collection GmbH, which represents the rights of Dietrich’s daughter Maria Riva.
Lawsuit for deletion of Marlene Dietrich’s videos on YouTube has been ongoing since 2012
The Munich Higher Regional Court’s ruling has a long history. Back in 2012, the Marlene Dietrich Collection took legal action against the publication of concert videos on the YouTube website. The GmbH was attempting to protect the personality and life’s work of the artist Marlene Dietrich, who died in 1992.
Initially, the Marlene Dietrich Collection was successful with its lawsuit. In 2012, the Munich Regional Court prohibited the reproduction of the classic “Lili Marleen” on YouTube (judgment of 8 August 2012 – 21 O 18481/07). In 2014, however, the judgment was amended by the Higher Regional Court (judgment of 23.01.2014 – 6 U 3515/12) to the effect that the reproduction was permitted after all. This is because Dietrich, as a US citizen, had not acquired any ancillary copyrights for Germany at the concert in London.
BGH: Dietrich’s ancillary copyrights also apply in Germany
However, the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe took a different view. It overturned the ruling in 2016 and referred the case back to the Higher Regional Court in Munich. As an artist, Marlene Dietrich had the same rights under international agreements as any German artist today.
With this decision, copyright protection was also possible in Germany – but only for the author of the works published on Youtube.com.
Marlene Dietrich Collection GmbH not authorized to sue
This is also the reason for the dismissal of the judgment in April 2017. According to the Munich Higher Regional Court, the videos published by YouTube constitute a cinematographic work. This means that the copyrights do not belong to the GmbH, as assumed by Marlene Dietrich Collection GmbH, but to the producer of the film recordings.
The Marlene Dietrich Collection was therefore simply not authorized to sue, which inevitably led to the dismissal of the lawsuit. Meanwhile, the OLG left open the question of whether YouTube, as a platform operator, is the right point of contact for copyright infringements. The OLG did not allow a further appeal and the judgment is therefore final.