The issue of intellectual property rights (Urheberrecht) and copyright (Nutzungs- und Verwertungsrechte) in media studies covers more than one aspect. On the one hand, each author produces their text; on the other hand, media scholars also use possibly protected works for their research and republish parts of them with their research (e.g. metadata, film clips etc.). In case of one’s own publication, open access publications allow for relatively easy access to knowledge, but not necessarily its unrestricted use. Because all texts that can count as proprietary work, i.e. reach a certain amount of creative production (“Schöpfungshöhe”), are automatically subject to intellectual property rights. In German, intellectual property rights are not for sale, they remain with the authors. However, the rights of use to a work (copyright) can be assigned to a third party, which is the rule with publications with publishers. This means that beyond the right to quote even the authors are prohibited from using fragments or the entire document without consulting the publisher. The possibility of making the use of self-written texts more open by means of selected Creative Commons licensing (and not letting individual publishers decide on the distribution alone) has so far been used rather hesitantly in the humanities.
The SIG aims to:
- identify media specific problems, in particular when it comes to audiovisual media, and publish guidelines for pragmatic practices
- foster joint lobbying (cultural heritage institutions and scholars) with legislators to improve the situation in the future
- encourage engagement with legal conditions for better informed decisions.
If you are interested to join our discussions and activities in this field please feel free to contact the SIG member:
Sarah-Mai Dang, Adelheid Heftberger, Dietmar Kammerer, Stephan Packard, (see contacts)