Sweat of the Brow: HTML
am 05.08.2005 von German American Law Journal :: American Edition
CK - Washington. Converting a clients ads from a text processor file to an HTML file, without more, is sweat of the brow-type work, not a copyrightable work under German copyright law, the Frankfurt Court of Appeals decided in the matter 11U64/04 on March 22, 2005.
On August 4, 2005, Niko Härting made the decision available and added a comment. In particular, he notes that this decision follows a trend among German courts that fail to protect web designs based on works created in other formats, for lack of creativity.
In this matter, the court explored copyright protection and liability under unfair competition law in the context of a web site that advertises employment opportunities for its clients. A competitor had scraped its content after receiving an identical assignment from one of its clients. The client had provided the content for the ads.
The parties argued whether HTML constitutes a programming language that is encompassed by the software protection rules of the copyright act. They also disagreed over the issue of protection afforded the advertisements under the database protection law, in §§87 et seq. of the Copyright Act.
The court confirmed that the creation of a web site based on other content is capable of general copyright protection if its digital production displays the required amount of creativity as per § 2(2) of the copyright statute. The ads at issue represent a technical production process, not a creative one, the court held.
The court ventured further, in order to determine whether special rules …
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