Protection of Digital Content and DRM Technologies in German Copyright

Abstract

Today, due to the challenges brought forth by digital and networkedinformation technologies, we see a ``crisis{''} of the finely tunedcopyright system as we know it. Internationally, we are in the midst ofadjusting the copyright sytem to its future tasks. Within the next weeksthe EU-Directive on Copyright in the Information Society will beimplemented into the German Copyright Law. However, still many issuesremain unresolved. The proper scope of the exception clauses as laiddown in 45 et seqs. of the German Copyright Act and, in particular, theprivate use exception of 53, is still subject to discussion. Thisquestion interrelates with the upcoming implementation of technologicalprotection measures (TPM) and digital rights management systems (DRM).For now, the legislature has granted strong legal protection for TPMthat might eventually undermine the underlying values of the statutoryexception clauses. A look back to the initial rationals of our copyrightsystem might help to find a proper balance of interests for the future.