Higher Regional Court of Brandenburg, 09 November 2010, Ref.: 6 U 14\/10<\/p>\n
The relationship between artistic freedom and copyright has often been the subject of judicial and supreme court decisions. In its highly regarded decision of 29 June 2000 (Ref. 1 BvR 825\/98) (\"Germania 3\"), for example, the Federal Constitutional Court stated:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\"The artist may include copyright-protected texts in his work even without a reference as evidence, as long as they remain as such the condition and creative means of his own artistic statement. If it is clearly a matter of critically recognising the foreign author himself as a person of the time and intellectual history, it may be a concern covered by artistic freedom to characterise this author, his political and moral stance as well as the intention and history of the impact of his work by quoting him himself. Whether the quotation constitutes such an acknowledgement and not merely the enrichment of a work by another's intellectual property must be determined on the basis of a comprehensive assessment of the work as a whole.\"<\/p>\n
The relationship between artistic freedom and copyright has now once again been the subject of a legal dispute in the above-mentioned proceedings before the Brandenburg Higher Regional Court.<\/p>\n
Facts<\/strong>The defendant (former director of the Eisenh\u00fcttenstadt district court and author) had written various books about his personal experiences of the fall of communism. His last work, \"Bl\u00fchende Landschaften\" (\"Blossoming Landscapes\"), dealt with the development of the judicial system in Brandenburg. Among other things, he took a critical look at the role of the press on this topic at that time and included newspaper articles and photographs in his book that had appeared in the M\u00e4rkische Oderzeitung (MOZ) on this topic. The plaintiff (MOZ) saw this as an infringement of its copyrights and brought an action before the Potsdam Regional Court, which granted the injunction. The defendant then appealed to the Brandenburg Higher Regional Court.<\/p>\n Higher Regional Court of Brandenburg<\/strong>The Higher Regional Court of Brandenburg did not agree with the plaintiff's view. The interference with the plaintiff's copyright-protected position was justified by the freedom of art enshrined in Article 5 (3) of the German Constitution. The book \"Bl\u00fchende Landschaften\" is an artistic work that utilises literary collage or the montage of texts and illustrative objects that differ in terms of content and style. The plaintiff had used the articles and images to make the political and social atmosphere of the events depicted tangible. In such a case, copyright law must be interpreted and applied in an art-specific manner.<\/p>\n Source: Higher Regional Court of Brandenburg<\/p>\n Important Note: The content of this article has been prepared to the best of our knowledge and belief. However, due to the complexity and constant evolution of the subject matter, we must exclude liability and warranty.<\/b> Important Notice: The content of this article has been created to the best of our knowledge and understanding. However, due to the complexity and constant changes in the subject matter, we must exclude any liability and warranty.<\/p>\n If you need legal advice, feel free to call us at 0221 \u2013 80187670 or email us at info@mth-partner.de.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Oberlandesgericht Brandenburg, 09.11.2010, Ref.: 6 U 14\/10 The relationship between artistic freedom and copyright has often been the subject of judicial and supreme court decisions. In its highly regarded decision of 29 June 2000 (Ref. 1 BvR 825\/98) (\"Germania 3\"), for example, the Federal Constitutional Court stated:<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11617,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wettbewerbsrecht-anwalt"],"yoast_head":"\n