Berlin Court: 'framing' of copyright protected images not a communication to the public
Just when you think all has been said about linking , framing and communication to the public , another judgment shows up and proves you wrong. This time, a legal dispute between the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek (DDB = ”German Digital Library”, the German content provider for Europeana ) and the Verwertungsgesellschaft Bild-Kunst (VG Bild-Kunst), a German collecting society for visual artists, gave the Higher Regional Court of Berlin the chance to further clarify what constitutes a communication to the public, and what does not. Cat with kittens, as seen on Europeana Factual and legal background The dispute arose from contractual negotiations between the parties. DDB hosts images (previews at a resolution of 800x600 pixels) on its website, some of which were created by members of VG Bild-Kunst (less than 1% of the images on DDB belong to VG Bild-Kunst’s members, according to DDB). The full versions of the images are stored on external websites of DDB’s suppliers and can be accessed f...