IP Watch on horrors of German copyright law
The usually excellent IP Watch is running a story on the effects of the proposed new German copyright law. The article centers on the chilling effects the draft law would have on research.
One researcher’s scenario:
“I will not be able to just use our highly sophisticated university
network to read that publication,” said Rainer Kuhlen, professor of
information science at the University of Constance and member of the
German UNESCO Commission [UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization]. “Instead, if the draft German copyright law is enacted,
I have to leave my office, drive there and do it on the spot, possibly
only to see that I even cannot print out a copy.”
A publisher rep responds:
“Publishers shouldn’t be expropriated for the sole benefit of public
research,” says Pascal Oberndoerfer, lawyer at the Institute of
Copyright and Media Law in Munich. “But there is a legitimate interest
of researchers to use a book they bought via their intranet.”
<rant> Publishers spreading idiotic talk of "expropriation" should indeed be expropriated and left to stare at the empty walls of a white room in a straightjacket until they have regained their senses far enough to accept the fact that people reading books are not their enemies, but their customers.</rant>
Unfortunately, I take it that the current draft is pretty final. Since Germany has no opposition to speak of at the moment, I’m not counting on too many changes. So we will get an impractical law, with the consequence that people will get used to breaking it.