2017/2 - Copyright Law

Browsing 2017/2 - Copyright Law by Subject "Copyright Law"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
  • Article
    The Concept of "pastiche" in Directive 2001/29/EC in the Light of the German Case Metall auf Metall
    Döhl, Frédéric (2017) , S. 37-64
    Frédéric Döhl analyses the development of the “Metall auf Metall” lawsuit from the beginning in 1999 until now and reviews all legal positions on micro-sampling. Moreover, he introduces “pastiche” as an exception in European copyright as a possible basis for the foundations of future copyright. So far, it remains to be clarified whether and how digital adaptations from other musical works and media can achieve the status of an “independent work” according to German copyright. Döhl reminds us that, in adaptation research, it is commonly acknowledged across all arts that, as a matter of principle, all adaptations can reach a state of artistic identity in their own right, no matter how prominent the original material may be in the new work. The controversial question is how and when these new works pass that threshold rather than whether they reach it at all. From an artistic point of view, the concept of independent use as an aesthetic category is a suitable instrument for a free balance of interests.
  • Article
    Editorial
    Englert, Kathrin; Faust, Lene; Henrich-Franke, Christian; Müller, Claudia; Schubert, Cornelius (2017) , S. 5-5
  • Article
    Editorial. The Reference as Part of the Art Form. A Turning Point in Copyright Law?
    Hoffmann, Dagmar; Klass, Nadine (2017) , S. 31-36
    On 31 May 2016, the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany ruled that specific forms of sampling may fall under the constitutionally protected freedom of art and takes precedence over the property interests of the rights holders (so-called sampling judgement, 1 BvR 1585/13 – “Metall auf Metall” (metal on metal)). The lawsuit concerned a two-second sample from the Kraftwerk song “Metall auf Metall” that had been used by producer Moses Pelham without permission for a Hip-Hop song performed by Sabrina Setlur. Over 19 years, the lawsuit passed through the entire German court hierarchy before recently being taken to the European level. In Germany, this ruling has revived the copyright debate on remixes and similarly transformative media practices within digital media environments. Those copyright related questions were addressed during an interdisciplinary symposium at the University of Siegen in May 2017. Experts from different fields of research presented their investigations and theoretical considerations. The symposium was based on two pillars: approaches from music, culture, and media studies on the one hand, and legal perspectives and evaluations on the other. The papers included in the thematic focus of this issue document selected outcomes of the symposium.