Germany up-dates ancillary right for publishers

On 15 January, Germany published a bill to implement Art.15 of the EU DSM Copyright Directive.

 Discussion Paper of Ministry for Consumer Protection

Germany introduced an ancillary copyright for press publishers in 2013 that requires content aggregators to seek authorization for the display of snippets. The DSM Copyright Directive extends the principle of a publishers right to the rest of the European Union and requires Germany to up-date its legislation.

The draft version published on 15th January clarifies that, following the provisions of the EU DSM Copyright Directive, the press publisher's ancillary copyright law does not cover:

• "private or non-commercial use of a press publication by individual users",
• "the setting of hyperlinks to a press publication"
• "the use of individual words or very short excerpts of a press publication".
• "Individual words or very short excerpts" may in particular include the title or a small-format preview image with a resolution of 128 x 128 pixels

Interest groups, such as BVPA within the picture Industry only have until 31. January to comment on the draft