Milestone in Copyright Jungle

CK - Washington.   Along the zigzagging course of German rulings through the jungle of contributory liability for copyright violations, the Frankfurt court of appeals set a milestone now available at Medien Internet und Recht. The December 20, 2007 decision in the matter 11 W 58/07 applies §97 of the recently revised copyright statute, Urhebergesetz, to facts involving the download of material protected by copyright through a computer system in violation of the act. The court absolved the owner of the PC of contributory liability for the download by a third party. It held the owner not subject to a duty to mon…