The following information constitutes neither legal advice nor legally binding information. It simply offers some tips on navigating the legal framework. We strive to keep this information up to date.
Translations of these materials into English are intended solely as a convenience to the non-German-reading public. Any discrepancies or differences that may arise in translations of the official German versions of these materials are not binding.
Within the scope of the German Copyright Law parts of a protected work may be digitized and made available under certain conditions, e.g. in digital course reserves.
The German Copyright in the Information Society Amending Law (Urheberrechts-Wissensgesellschafts-Gesetz – UrhWissG) comes into force on 1 March 2018 and reformulates, among other things, the provisions on the use of protected works for education and research (so-called limitations on copyright). The amending law creates new regulations for users from education, science and research and adapts the Copyright Law (UrhG) to reflect the digital age.
A new subchapter (sections 60a-60h UrhG) has been introduced and each of these sections is addressed to a specific group – e. g. students and lecturers at universities, researchers, libraries, archives – and is intended to determine in language as simple and clear as possible the future permitted use of protected works in teaching, science and institutions. In the newly created section 60d UrhG, so-called text and data mining, the algorithm-based analysis of data and information, is taken into account for the first time.
The previous sections 52a, 52b, 53a UrhG are thereby cancelled.
Use of protected works in education and teaching
What about documents made available and used before 1 March 2018?
Please ensure that materials made available before 1 March 2018 comply with the new regulations as of 1 March 2018.
What may I make available to the participants attending my courses?
Section 60a allows educational institutions to use protected material to a certain extent to support teaching. Works that have already been published may be reproduced, distributed, made available to the public and publicly reproduced within certain limits. Materials can be made available in both digital (e. g. on Moodle) and analogue (print) formats.
Examples of permitted uses in teaching and training include presentations in lectures, distribution of paper scripts to students and the provision of materials on password-protected platforms such as Moodle.
What requirements must be met?
Use in accordance with section 60a are only permitted if it serves to support training and teaching. Use is therefore only permissable in order to make learning materials more understandable and easier to grasp; use for entertainment purposes is not permitted. The acts of use must be limited to teachers and participants of the respective events. The provision of digitized teaching materials must be limited to the participants of the respective event and this must be technically ensured, i. e. the data must be password-protected. You can limit the number of users by using Moodle, for example, and take advantage of the opportunity to create a digital course reserve for your seminars.
Teachers and examiners of the same educational institution may share and pass on copies between themselves.
Permitted uses are still restricted to specific limits:
- Up to 15% of a published work may be used.
- If the material consists of illustrations, individual articles from specialist periodicals or scientific journals, other works of minor scope or out-of-print works, they may be used in their entirety.
- Texts are works of small size if they are not longer than 25 pages, musical notes not longer than 6 pages, musical works and cinematographic works not longer than 5 minutes.
- Only one single contribution may be taken in full from each journal.
Please note: Press products such as general-interest magazines (so-called kiosk magazines) and newspapers are excluded from this regulation, only 15% of an article may be used here.
- Film works may also be used in extracts of up to 15 %.
- No physical copies of musical notes may be made, but digital copies such as scans may be produced and made available to the participants for demonstration purposes.
- In school lessons, works intended for teaching at schools may not be used in accordance with section 60a as described above.
What should be considered when making journal articles accessible?
If the works provided are figures or illustrations, individual contributions from specialist periodicals or scientific journals, other works of minor size or works out of print, they may be used in full. Only one single contribution may be taken in full from each journal.
Please note: Press products such as general-interest magazines (so-called kiosk magazines) and newspapers are excluded from this regulation, only 15% of an article may be used here.
May I record my course and make it available?
According to the legal provisions, it is also permitted to broadcast content in distance learning, e.g. in lectures for so-called MOOCS (massive open online courses). Here too, it must be ensured that the provision is limited to a limited circle of participants.
May I cite works in my teaching materials?
Texts and illustrations may be cited (section 51 UrhG). In doing so, you have to consider the content of the citation and specify the source. Please note in particular that the citation of illustrations is subject to strict guidelines and must be checked carefully to ensure that they are fulfilled and that the citation of the illustration is sufficient. Detailed information on quotation can be found in the TUM University Library Citation Guide: http://mediatum.ub.tum.de/1225458
Use of protected works in own research
What may I make available to the members of my research project?
In the future, researchers will be able to reproduce, distribute and make publicly available 15 % of a work or – deviating from this – illustrations, individual articles from the same specialist periodical or scientific journal, other small-scale works and out-of-print works in full for their own scientific research in accordance with section 60c subsections 1 and 3 UrhG for their research group.
The requirements are that the groups' own scientific research must be carried out and that it is not for commercial purposes. It is important that the group of people with access rights is specified and delimited, i.e. the data must be password-protected. Materials may be made available in both digital (e. g. on Moodle) and analogue (print) formats. Access may also be granted to individual third parties for quality control purposes (e.g. for peer review procedures or awards). Unpublished works may also be used, e.g. for researching estates. However, only the copyright holder may decide on the publication of the work. General-interest magazines and newspapers may not be used within the scope of section 60c UrhG.
To what extent and for what purpose may I make copies for myself?
Within the scope of section 60c subsection 2 UrhG, up to 75 % of a work may be reproduced if the copies are used solely for scientific research and not for commercial purposes. The copies can be made digitally or in analogue (print) format. The duplications must not be passed on to third parties.
What do I have to consider when using journal articles for my own research?
Individual articles from a specialist periodical or scientific journal may be used for one's own scientific research according to section 60c subsection 3 UrhG. However, this does not apply to general-interest magazines and newspapers. Here only 15% of an article can be used according to section 60c subsection 1 UrhG. Otherwise, commercial offers of publishers must be used.
May I analyze protected works using text and data mining?
Yes, for scientific research with non-commercial purposes, works may be analysed automatically (section 60d UrhG). Works, which may originate from different, legally accessible sources, may be copied, normalized, structured and categorized for text and data mining in order to create an evaluable so-called corpus from the original material. The corpus may be made accessible to individual third parties for quality control (e.g. peer review). The copies and the corpus must be deleted as soon as the research is concluded. The corpus may, however, be permanently stored by libraries, among others.
Further information on use and availability
How is the scope of a linguistic work determined?
For the calculation of permitted use, all pages which are not blank pages and whose content consists mainly of text, i.e. table of contents etc., must be included.
May I use works for non-commercial purposes?
As a rule, works are used in regular courses at the TUM for non-commercial purposes (section 60a UrhG). In cases of doubt, e.g. in the case of fee-based courses or contract research, they should either not be used or the rights of use obtained.
May I embed works from other servers in my material?
Works from other servers (e.g. YouTube videos) can be embedded if the providers of the servers allow for it. To improve data protection, the other servers should only be accessed after clicking on the embedded work.
May works be linked?
Works can be linked, provided that this is legally permitted. In case of recognizable breaches of the law, the linking party is liable, so caution is advised here.
How may I use works under free licenses?
Works under free licenses may be used as the licenses allow. The most common free licenses are Creative Commons licenses. What is and is not permitted under the various Creative Commons licenses is described on the Creative Commons Corporation website: http://creativecommons.org
May I modify works?
Modifications are not permitted. However, translating texts and changing the size of photos and images in accordance with section 52 subsections 2 and 3 UrhG is permitted insofar as this is necessary for the purpose of research. Modifications going beyond this require the consent of the copyright holder. The obligation to cite the source according to section 63 UrhG must be observed.
What are out-of-print works?
Out-of-print works are published and still protected by copyright, but are no longer available in any version through the book sellers.
To clarify whether a work is out of print, the list of available books (VLB) can be consulted as the first source of information: https://www.buchhandel.de/ueber-das-vlb
The German Patent and Trademark Office maintains a register of out-of-print works. However, only works published before 1966 and for which licensing is planned by a collecting society are listed here. Accordingly, this directory is not complete. https://www.dpma.de/english/our_office/about_us/further_duties/cmos_copy...
Out-of-print works can be used according to sections 60a, 60c UrhG. In unclear cases, an out-of-print work should be treated in the same way as a not out-of-print work.
What are orphaned works?
Orphaned works are still protected by copyright, but despite careful searches, their owners are unknown or cannot be found. Orphaned works can be used under the conditions of section 61 UrhG.
How are authors paid for the use of their works?
Authors are entitled to compensation when using their works for teaching purposes (section 60h UrhG). The royalties are paid exclusively by the collecting societies (e.g. VG Wort). The remuneration is either flat-rate or is calculated according to a representative sample, depending on use. The exact details of the remuneration are currently being negotiated between the Conference of Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs and the collecting societies.
