New copyright regulations will come into force on March 1, 2018. The entire copyright law relating to the use of third-party works for teaching and scientific purposes will be amended and reorganized at the same time. A catalog of permissible acts of use for copyrighted works is to be added.
The aim and purpose of the new Copyright Knowledge Society Act (UrhWissG) is to increase legal certainty and transparency. At the same time, however, the social commitment of copyrights is to be extended in favor of science and teaching. The changes should also lead to more opportunities in research.
Easier image citation
The reform is also accompanied by a change that affects image quotations. In future, copyright-protected reproductions of a work will also be covered by the right to quote under Section 51 UrhG. The following sentence is to be added to Section 51 UrhG:
The right to quote in accordance with sentences 1 and 2 includes the use of an image or other reproduction of the cited work, even if this is itself protected by copyright or a related right.
Problems in practice: Comprehensive freedom to cite was not previously given
The introduction of this provision will eliminate a previously existing uncertainty in practice. This is because a copyrighted image or reproduction of a protected work can often not be produced by the citing user.
In order to embed it in his work by means of a quotation, he often has to fall back on existing image material because it is impossible for him to make a copy himself. However, these third-party, pre-existing image materials are usually protected by copyright in the same way as the actual works – for example under Section 72 UrhG.
Image citation – license of the reprographer so far only possibility
Until now, the only option available to the citing party was therefore often to obtain the license for the reproduced work from the rights holder (“reprographers”). Such reprographers are, for example, publishers, museums, exhibitors and auction houses that use a reproduction of the work in the form of a photograph for advertising purposes.
However, with this form of image quotation, the legislator undermined its own intention of comprehensive freedom of quotation for images through the requirements of Section 51 UrhG. With the new regulation, however, it is now possible to use such reproductions without the consent of the rights holder.
No further new regulations regarding the image citation
The new version of Section 51 UrhG does not provide for any further changes. The new UrhWissG does not aim to make any further changes to the image quotation either. Accordingly, the very strict requirements of Section 51 UrhG (keyword “documentary function“) will continue to apply to image quotations. Of course, the changes to copyright law do not remove the legal obligations to indicate authorship (Section 13 UrhG) and the source (Section 63 UrhG) of the reproduction.