VG Wort
Verwertungsgesellschaft Wort
Germany
SAA welcomes CJEU ruling in VG Wort case
28 June 2013
News
The ruling published on 27 June 2013 recognises that any device used as part of a reproduction process can be subject to a levy to compensate authors for the reproduction, without their authorisation, of their protected works.
The judgement (press release here) in the case, brought by SAA member VG Wort, underlined 3 key points:
- Countries that implement the reprography exception (included in the 2001 Copyright Directive) must guarantee fair compensation from anyone using a device that contributes to such reproduction.
- Acts of reproduction that may have been authorised by the rightholder still require fair compensation.
- The non-application of available technical protection measures does not mean that fair compensation is not due.
Although dealing with reprography, the judgement could have a significant impact on the development of private copying systems for new digital devices and potentially cloud services.
You can read VG Wort's press release here (and here in German).