Skip to main content

The importance of copyright for scientific practice

"In the digital world, (almost) everything is relevant in terms of copyright! Why? Because everything is a copy."

Paul Klimpel

In teaching

  • What uses are permitted?
  • Who may I make content available to?
  • Are exam assignments protected by copyright?
  • May students/teachers use copyrighted images (photos, graphics, etc.) in term papers or teaching material?

In research

  • May I use copyright-protected materials for my own research?
  • May I distribute copyright-protected materials to other researchers?
  • Are my research data and results protected by copyright?
  • What do I need to bear in mind with text and data mining?

When publishing

  • Who can actually decide on the publication or who has the right to publish
  • What do I have to consider when publishing research results
  • May I also make my research results, which have already been published by a publisher, available online

?

Cover der BMBF-Broschüre "Urheberrecht in der Wissenschaft" (2023)
CC-BY-SA BMBF

Where can I find information on this?

General:

You can find brief answers to the above and other questions in:

BMBF (ed.), Urheberrecht in der Wissenschaft. Ein Überblick für Forschung, Lehre und Bibliotheken (July 2023), CC-BY-SA (Download the PDF)

T. Kreutzer, H. Lahmann: Legal Issues in Open Science. A guide (2021): https://doi.org/10.15460/HUP.211

Specifically in relation to research data:

Providing a good overview:

Specifically on microscopy images (photomicrography): Help on legal and ethical issues in collection digitisation

The following dissertation, which is available to download free of charge, also addresses more specific questions:

P. Baumann, Rights to research data (Sep. 2023), CC-BY-ND: https://digitalrecht-z.uni-trier.de/index.php/drz/catalogue/book/25

NFDI offerings:

The "Ethical, Legal and Social Aspects" (ELSA) section of the NFDI (https://www.nfdi.de/section-elsa/) offers:

Individual consortia also develop materials, e.g.:

 

Important terms briefly explained

  • The creator of a work (§ 7 UrhG)
  • is a natural person -> legal persons cannot be authors!

"If several persons have jointly created a work without their shares being separately exploitable, they are co-authors of the work." (§ 8 para. 1 UrhG)

Are only personal intellectual creations (§ 2 para. 2 UrhG)

  • Personal: requires individuality and uniqueness (level of design)
    • novelty, not mere repetition
    • No purely handcrafted product
  • Intellectual: purely human creation (even if aids are used)
  • Creation: Must be perceptible to the senses (no protection of ideas!)

legally authorised uses (Sections 44a-69g UrhG): under certain conditions, the author must tolerate the use of their work in the public interest, e.g.:

  • Quotations (§ 51 UrhG): Parts of a work may be used with reference to the author and in compliance with other regulations, e.g. for texts, but also for images -> reference function!
  • Private copy (§ 53 UrhG): Reproduction for private purposes is permitted to a specified extent
  • Education & Research (§ 60a-60h UrhG)

e.g. making copies of works
  • Distribution right (§ 17 UrhG): e.g. Distribute originals or copies, sell books
  • Exhibition right (§ 18 UrhG): e.g. Exhibiting photographs (photographic works) in public
  • Presentation, performance and demonstration rights (Section 19 UrhG)
  • Right to make available to the public (Section 19a UrhG): posting on the Internet

    • Transfer options:

    • Limited or unlimited in time
    • Limited or unlimited in space
    • Simple or exclusive
    • For all or only for certain types of use

    "Contractually agreed usage authorisation. It can be granted either individually as a contract or via a standard licence, e.g. through an open content licence or an EULA (End User Licence Agreement)."

    Source: BMBF (ed.), Urheberrecht in der Wissenschaft. An overview for research, teaching and libraries (July 2023), p. 60.

    "Standardised usage permission that makes it possible to automatically grant usage rights to an indefinite number of people (without direct contact). Open Content licences are usually developed by specialised organisations such as Creative Commons and made available for general use."

    Source: BMBF (ed.), Urheberrecht in der Wissenschaft. An overview for research, teaching and libraries (July 2023), p. 63

    Creative Commons licences

    The best-known open licences are the Creative Commons licences, which have established themselves internationally as the standard for scientific publications. There are six different standard licence agreements, which can be combined from the modules Attribution (BY), ShareAlike (SA), No Derivative Works (ND) and Non-Commercial (NC) (see graphic)

    The Creative Commons Licence Chooser can also help you choose the right CC licence: https://chooser-beta.creativecommons.org/

    Caution when using the non-commercial module (NC)

    Non-commercial licence types (e.g. CC-BY-NC; CC-BY-NC-ND) exclude many desired uses without significant advantages and have further disadvantages:

    • Legal uncertainty: In Germany, there is currently no established case law on the understanding of "commercial use" under CC.
      • According to the strict interpretation, any use that is not purely private is considered commercial (e.g. publication on the internet)

      • According to the moderate interpretation, consideration is given to by whom, how, where and for what purpose the use is made (e.g. for profit, use for commercial purposes). for profit, use for advertising purposes, publication on a commercial platform)

        -> Consequences of the grey area: Certain institutions and groups of people are excluded from using NC-licensed materials or, in case of doubt, refrain from doing so (e.g. teachers at private educational institutions, further education institutions, etc.). Teachers at private educational institutions, further education providers, associations, non-profit organisations)

    • NC-licensed material is by definition not "open access"
      • When choosing a licence, please also take into account possible requirements from the funding body
    • Exclusive commercial rights for publishers
    • Commercial exploitation by publishers nevertheless possible

    See in detail: DEAL consortium: Why CC BY is the best choice for open access publications

    Sources and further information:
    Tabellarischer Überblick über die CC-Lizenzen
    CC-BY-SA 3.0 Anne Bieberstein
    CC licences at a glance. The graphic was created by the e-learning working group at TU Darmstadt (creator: Anne Bieberstein).