Monday, April 14, 2003

New German Copyright Law Pleases Scholars and Angers Academic Publishers By BURTON BOLLAG A hotly contested copyright law adopted on Friday by Germany's Parliament gives universities and research institutions considerable leeway to digitally distribute copyrighted materials among students and scholars without paying extra charges. The law has been welcomed by academics. But academic publishers, who fought tooth and nail against the bill, say it will force them out of business. The bill was designed to bring German law in line with a two-year-old European Union directive covering a wide range of digital-copyright issues. But the directive is silent on the issue of copyright exemptions for education and research. Publishers say they will challenge the new legislation with European authorities in Brussels. The law in effect grants exemption from copyright restrictions, for specified nonprofit purposes, to "privileged institutions," meaning schools, higher-education institutions, and public research organizations. Passage of the bill was assured when a parliamentary committee last week inserted several compromises. The main opposition party, the Christian Democrats, then dropped its opposition. Two key changes stipulate that only "small parts" of copyrighted material can be distributed this way, and that access to such material shall be for "a defined, limited, and small" number of people -- for example, the students in a particular course. Access must be controlled by the use of passwords or a similar mechanism. Moreover, to remain valid, this section of the law must be reviewed by Parliament and reapproved at the end of 2006. Up to now Germany has had very restrictive legislation that, for example, made it illegal in most cases for scholars to put copyrighted material on even an internal computer network. Academics say the new law basically gives them the same rights over copyrighted material in digital form as they already have over such material printed on paper. Just as they may photocopy pages from a book and distribute them to students registered for a class, they will now be allowed to post such material on a Web page with access limited to those same students. But the compromises did not satisfy everyone. Georg Siebeck is head of a loose group of 35 academic book publishers, who include the majority of German publishers producing books for academe and have combined annual revenues of $2-billion. He says allowing only "small parts" of copyrighted material to be distributed is no guarantee for publishers' commercial interests. "You can still put the single chapters next to each other and with a click, download the whole book," he said. Mr. Siebeck, who is the owner of a small publishing house, says that digital copies of works should in fact benefit from greater copyright protection than paper copies since, unlike paper copies, digital copies are as good as the original. The new law, he says, "doesn't provide publishers with an incentive to publish in digital form." "No country would be as stupid as this" he said, and pass a law "to kill its own publishers." Publishers and booksellers mounted a vociferous campaign against the bill. One ad stated: "Imagine you have produced a book and the state is allowed to steal it." Publishers sent appeals to scholars, warning the proposed law would mean an end to the royalties they receive from sales of their works, and managed to get almost 2,000 scientists to sign a petition against the bill. Scientific associations, representing tens of thousands of researchers, and library associations responded with declarations rejecting the publishers' stance. Scholars say the publishers are greatly exaggerating the dangers they will face. "Their whole campaign was based on lies," says Rainer Kuhlen, a professor at the University of Konstanz and chairman of the German Association of Information Scientists. "The law will be a challenge to publishers to develop -- along with academics -- new ways to organize and distribute digital material." Tomas Hoeren, a professor of law and director of the Institute for Telecommunications and Media Law at Westfälische Wilhelms University, in Münster, says the new legislation will make Germany, along with the Scandinavian countries and the United States, among the nations with a relatively tolerant approach to the use of copyrighted materials for specified educational purposes. France and Spain are among those with a more restrictive approach. Background articles from The Chronicle: Slow Start for Long-Awaited Easing of Copyright Restriction (3/28/2003) Congress Eases Copyright Restrictions on Distance Education (10/18/2002) Easy-to-print version E-mail this article

Congress approves budget plan without increase in maximum Pell Grant Northwest Missouri State U. and University of Missouri System take first step toward merger Harvard changes policy on early applications, excluding students who apply early elsewhere Looting of antiquities in Iraq outrages scholars North Carolina research institute receives contract to help rebuild local governments in Iraq 'Suspicious' fire near Ohio State U.'s Columbus campus kills 5 students New German copyright law pleases scholars and angers academic publishers Spring commencement speakers are announced by 15 colleges A university wants faculty members to compete to get into a new high-tech building