A group of 576 artists appeals to politicians not to “play off copyright against us”. Music up to 20 seconds, remixes, samples – “everything should be freely usable, without a license”, the alliance railed against the draft of the Federal Ministry of Justice on copyright reform. Above all, the proposed new exceptions to the exclusive exploitation rights are “so outrageously contrary to European law” that “we can only shake our heads”.

The signatories of the heise online letter to members of the government and members of the Bundestag include the bands and ensembles AnnenMayKantereit, Antilopen Gang, Beatsteaks, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Doctors, Die Toten Hosen, Feine Sahne Fischfilet and Kraftwerk. There are also musicians, singers and DJs such as Blixa Bargeld, Herbert Grönemeyer, Joy Denalane, Leslie Mandoki, Paul van Dyk and Tim Bendzko.

“No adequate remuneration” “The Corona crisis hit us hard,” write the artists. It is all the more painful that “we are still not receiving adequate remuneration for our works in the only non-restricted market” of online platforms. The EU Parliament had the courage to shift “the unequal power imbalance” a little towards a new balance with the controversial copyright directive and the resulting tightened liability regime.

They had another concern The alliance emphasizes that EU politicians have been picked up and “the power of disposal over our artistic work has been put back into our hands: we should no longer have to fish out every bit of video in the flood of platforms ourselves, in which, for example, new rights or conspiracy theorists Make use of the awareness of our works without being asked. ”

The musicians are therefore” horrified “at how little of this intention has remained in the ministry’s project: the guideline is being watered down, the position of creative people weakened in negotiations. “Instead of a harmonized European market for licenses, we are getting a German self-service shop where our works are given away to everyone who says ‘pastiche’.”

Bagatellschranke Above all, the proposed “minor barrier”, with which snippets of content such as memes in social media are to be made license-free and subject to payment, must be dropped, the authors demand. User rights in the area of ​​”User Generated Content” should not be extended across the board through the back door. The tried and tested notice-and-takedown procedure for removing content should be retained.

That the legislative proposal (LB 2985648: very is controversial) $ shows, in addition to the objections from other ministries that have already become public, the high number of over 100 statements to the justice department. The spectrum of interest representatives ranges from rights holders to associations of the IT industry and initiatives such as SaveTheInternet, which have long been campaigning against upload filters, to the churches. For example, the German bishops are campaigning for the ability to continue streaming church services beyond the corona pandemic with a flat fee via the collecting society Gema.

Against upload filters Raise your voice for the first time 30 Social media greats like PietSmiet, Gronkh, Le Floyd, Rewi, Rezo and Tilo Jung, who say they have around 88 million users on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Twitch and Reach TikTok. They complain that the initiative “draws a line between the owners of copyrights and users of upload platforms” that “does not correspond to actual practice”. As a “content creator” they are both and have “as creatives and as a company in the cultural industry” against the article at the time 13 (now 17) protested the directive.

“We reject automated systems, Check the uploads for copyright infringement, in principle, “emphasize the makers. They could not understand the content of uploaded works and are therefore not suitable for correctly detecting copyright violations. This would actually suppress legal content. The creators expressly rate the “provided exceptions for the public reproduction of a tiny excerpt” of copyrighted works for non-commercial purposes as positive.

User rights and copyrights The Federal Association of Consumer Organizations (vzbv) praises the fact that the Ministry of Justice has given the freedom to design articles 17 actively intended to use. It is clear, however, that upload filters would not be prevented by the present proposal. In this respect, the government is breaking the promise made in the coalition agreement. That is why it is crucial “that user rights are protected as best as possible”. This is not a necessary evil, but a prerequisite for being able to implement the EU requirements in accordance with fundamental rights at all.

Wikimedia Germany also calls on the government to do so to pay more attention to the needs of the users and to maintain the balance of legal permissions. Even if Wikipedia is excluded from the article : If filter algorithms are used widely, the entire process of creation suffers from free Knowledge of social media, forums and video portals is massive. The fact that automatic systems should check content in advance contradicts the tenor of the executive’s protocol declaration.

Shift of responsibility In contrast to the discussion draft, the revised paper no longer contains any “innovative solutions”, regrets Google. The justice department is now making service providers “responsible for problems within the ecosystem that are beyond their control”. The obligation to acquire licenses for typically uploaded content is impractical and incompatible with European law.

The group considers the extended ancillary copyright for press publishers to be unnecessary. It was only in October 2020 that he announced that he would be giving journalists and press publishers increased support through the “News Showcase” and paying license fees for selected high-quality articles. Snippets with up to 200 characters or 30 Words should definitely remain license-free. According to VG Media, which represents many publishers, the draft, despite corrections, “secures the business models of the providers of services that use press products intensively and extensively”.

Technical concerns about the “Pre -Flagging System “has Facebook. Comparing billions of uploads with millions of files from rights holders in real time using complex technology “is not possible in many cases”. German users could face longer and frustrating waiting times when trying to post content. This is likely to harm their right to freedom of expression.

(jk)