The (New) Copyright Contract Law

With the Amendment of the Austrian Copyright Act, which came into force on 31 December 2021, the Austrian Copyright contract law was overhauled. Besides the implementation of the provisions of the Digital Single Market Directive ("DSM Directive"), the amendment provides the adoptions of individual provisions from the German Copyright Act. This insight series shall provide an overview of the most important changes and further explore their consequences.

First of all, what is Copyright contract law? Copyright contract law concerns all contractual relationships involving the granting of rights of use to works protected by copyright law (like texts, drawings, photos, graphics, music, films, etc.). Since we are constantly creating copyrighted works and using others' works this also affects our daily lives. The legal provisions in the field of copyright contract law restrict the private autonomy of the contracting parties in favour of the author. The justification in