By a judgement of 11 August 2011, which has now been published,
the Higher Regional Court of Karlsruhe has clarified that news
texts are, in principle, also protected by copyright. The action
had been brought by a news agency against an Internet magazine, as
the defendant had published on its website various news reports in
an unchanged manner. The defendant had correctly stated the source
in that respect.
On the one hand, the defendant had assumed that it could invoke
the "news privilege" under § 49, section 2 German
Copyrights Act, according to which "mixed news of a factual
nature", as well as "daily news" may be published
without any limitations. That assumption only applies, however, if
the text is limited to the mere communication of news and does not
contain any additional explanatory or instructive comments, views
or additions. The latter will be deemed to be the case if the
contribution contains independent assessments (such as
"dramatic emergency landing")
