Paper and ePaper Fees

CK - Washington.   A Cologne court decided that an author earns separate fees for an article published in two formats: a printed paper and an electronic paper made available for download on the Internet. The writer had granted permission for publication in the newspaper, and the Internet publication followed without his written consent. The court rejected the publisher's argument that the existing authorization covered the subsequent publication because the court considered the second medium entirely different under section 15, 16, 19 of the German Copyright Statute, Urheberrechtsgesetz. As a result, the second publication was unlicensed and entitled the author to damages which the court measured by reference to the published rates for journalists, Vergütungsentwurf der Deutschen Journalistinnen und Journalisten-Union. The opinion of June 14, 2006 in the matter 137 C 90/05 has been published with a comment, in German, by MIR as document 029-2007. German American Law Journal :: Washington USA