Authors: Petra Sitte, Simon Weiß
In this article series, we will discuss the contents of the new draft of the DSM Directive. What was the Directive initially about, what does the current draft say, what has been changed compared to earlier drafts, and what needs to be amended in our view? While part 1 focused on Article 17 and the upload filters, we now turn to copyright contract law.
What is it about?
Copyright contract law has received far less attention in the context of the reform of copyright legislation than issues such as upload filters or ancillary copyright law. This is, of course, due to the fact that although many people use the Internet, only few negotiate copyright contracts. Nevertheless, what is at issue here is the question of fair distribution of revenues, which (leaving privacy rights issues aside) is at the core of copyright law: who is entitled to the revenue generated by the use of creative works?
In this context, creative individuals usually negotiate with exploiters who wield greater economic power, such as publishing houses and television broadcasters, and thus find themselves in a much weaker position. As in labour law, they must therefore be protected by legislation in order to be able to enforce their claims. Germany’s copyright law contains a number of provisions to this end. But despite a number of reforms that have attempted to address the problem in recent years, current copyright contract law still fails to sufficiently ensure that creative individuals receive an equitable share of the profits.
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