Copyright and Media Law in Germany

Copyright and media law in Germany: an overview

Copyright and media law in Germany combines federal copyright legislation with state media regulation and a growing layer of EU law. The Copyright Act (Urheberrechtsgesetz, UrhG) protects works and neighbouring rights; the Copyright Service Provider Act (Urheberrechts-Diensteanbieter-Gesetz, UrhDaG) governs upload platforms; the Interstate Media Treaty (Medienstaatsvertrag, MStV) of the federal states regulates broadcasting and online media, supervised by the state media authorities (Landesmedienanstalten); and EU instruments such as the Digital Services Act and the European Media Freedom Act add platform and media-pluralism rules.

For media companies, platforms, brands, agencies and event organisers, these regimes overlap in daily business: licensing content, publishing online, running platforms and staging events.

This note summarises the key rules and practical issues for businesses that create, license, distribute or host content in Germany, whether they are established in Germany or target German audiences from abroad. Detailed topics — AI and copyright, reputation protection, influencer marketing, the DSA — are covered in separate insights linked below.

Copyright basics: works, authors and licences

The UrhG protects personal intellectual creations, including literary works and software, music, visual art, photographs, films and technical drawings (§ 2). Protection arises automatically without registration and lasts 70 years after the author's death (§ 64 UrhG). Neighbouring rights protect performers, phonogram producers, broadcasters, film producers, database makers, press publishers and simple photographs, generally for shorter periods.

German copyright cannot be transferred as a whole during the author's lifetime; instead, authors grant rights of use (Nutzungsrechte), which may be simple or exclusive and limited by territory, time or content (§ 31 UrhG).

Where a contract does not specify the types of use, the "purpose-of-transfer" rule (§ 31(5)) means that only the rights required for the contract's purpose are granted — a frequent trap for companies commissioning content without detailed licences. Authors are entitled to equitable remuneration and can demand contract adjustments if the agreed fee is not equitable or becomes disproportionately low compared with the exploiter's revenues (§§ 32, 32a), and they have information rights against their contractual partners.

Exceptions: quotation, parody and pastiche

Copyright and media law relies on statutory exceptions to balance rights with freedom of expression. The most relevant for media and marketing are quotations for a specific purpose (§ 51 UrhG), reporting on current events (§ 50), and caricature, parody and pastiche (§ 51a UrhG), which permits reproduction, distribution and communication to the public of a published work for those purposes.

The pastiche exception has become important for memes, remixes and sampling-based content; its scope is being clarified by the courts, including through a reference to the Court of Justice of the European Union in the long-running sampling dispute over a short drum sequence. Exceptions are interpreted narrowly in commercial advertising, where licences are usually still required.

Press publishers' right and news aggregation

Since 2021, press publishers have an exclusive neighbouring right to make their press publications available online and reproduce them for online use by information society service providers (§ 87g UrhG). The right does not cover facts, private use, hyperlinks or very short extracts. Search engines, news aggregators and AI services that display press content therefore need licences beyond very short snippets, and authors are entitled to an appropriate share of the publisher's revenue. Collective licensing through collecting societies and individual agreements with large platforms have developed in parallel.

Licensing and collective management

Many uses are licensed through collecting societies (Verwertungsgesellschaften) such as GEMA for music and VG Wort and VG Bild-Kunst for text and images, under the Collecting Societies Act. Businesses playing music in shops, at events or online, and broadcasters and platforms, typically need licences from collecting societies in addition to direct licences from labels, publishers or producers. Tariffs are published, and disputes over tariffs can go to an arbitration board at the German Patent and Trade Mark Office.

Collecting societies also administer statutory remuneration rights, such as levies on devices and storage media for private copying, which affect manufacturers and importers of electronics. Companies entering the German market with devices, streaming services or content platforms should identify early which collecting societies they must deal with and what reporting obligations follow.

For commissioned content — photographs, films, software, marketing material — companies should obtain written licences that specify the types of use, territories, duration, exclusivity, modification rights and sublicensing. Buy-out clauses remain subject to authors' statutory remuneration rights. Licences from photographers, designers and developers should also address moral rights, such as attribution and the right to object to distortions, which cannot be waived entirely under German law but can be shaped contractually.

Platforms: the UrhDaG

Germany implemented Article 17 of the Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive through the UrhDaG. A service provider that gives the public access to copyright works uploaded by users performs an act of communication to the public (§ 1(1) UrhDaG). It avoids liability only if it meets its duties according to high industry standards and the principle of proportionality (§ 1(2)), including best efforts to acquire licences offered to it, available through representative rightholders it knows or obtainable from German collecting societies (§ 4), and blocking duties on request of rightholders.

Germany's specific feature is the concept of "presumably permitted uses". To avoid over-blocking by upload filters, user-generated content that uses less than half of a third-party work, combines it with other content and either uses it only to a minor extent or is flagged by the user as legally permitted must remain online until a complaint procedure is completed (§ 9 UrhDaG). Minor uses are up to 15 seconds of a film or audio track, up to 160 characters of text and up to 125 kilobytes of a photograph or graphic, provided they are not commercial or generate only insignificant income (§ 10 UrhDaG).

Media regulation: the state media authorities

Broadcasting and certain online media are regulated by the federal states. The Interstate Media Treaty covers broadcasting licences, advertising rules, protection of minors (together with the Youth Media Protection Treaty), journalistic due diligence for online media with journalistic-editorial content, and rules for media platforms, user interfaces and media intermediaries such as search engines and social networks (transparency and non-discrimination). The state media authorities supervise compliance and can impose measures and fines.

For businesses, the most common touchpoints are:

• Streaming and live content: depending on the format, live streams can require a broadcasting licence or at least notification.
• Advertising and labelling: commercial communications must be recognisable and separated from editorial content; see our insight on influencer marketing.
• Online journalism: websites with journalistic-editorial content must observe recognised journalistic principles; complaints can lead to supervisory action.
• Platforms and intermediaries: transparency of ranking and recommendation criteria for media content.

The European Media Freedom Act adds EU-level rules on editorial independence, transparency of media ownership and the treatment of media content by very large online platforms. The Digital Services Act and its German implementing law govern illegal content and transparency for all intermediaries; see our insight on the DSA in Germany.

Images, personality rights and data protection

Publishing images of identifiable people generally requires their consent (§ 22 KUG), subject to exceptions for contemporary history, people as incidental accessories, gatherings and art, which do not apply where legitimate interests of the person depicted are violated (§ 23 KUG). For commercial use, consent is the norm; data protection law applies in parallel. Reporting on people raises press law questions; see our insight on reputation protection and press law.

Event law

Events combine many of these areas. Organisers need licences for music and other content, contracts with artists, venues and ticketing providers, and compliance with safety regulations for venues under state building law. Recording and streaming events requires rights from performers and other participants, and photography at events raises image-rights questions. Ticketing involves consumer law, including information duties and rules on cancellations and refunds, as well as anti-touting terms. Sponsorship agreements must manage exclusivity and ambush marketing. For sports events, see our insight on sports law.

Copyright and media law for brands and agencies

Brands and agencies encounter copyright and media law in nearly every campaign: licensing photographs, music and footage, clearing images of people, complying with advertising labelling rules and platform policies, and managing user-generated content. A clearance process should cover each element of a campaign — text, images, music, trade marks of third parties, people shown — and the licences should match the planned media, territories and duration. Agencies should warrant that they hold the necessary rights and disclose any use of AI tools, since AI-generated elements may not be protected and may carry infringement risks.

Enforcement

Rightholders can claim injunctions, damages (calculated as actual loss, infringer's profit or a reasonable licence fee), information and destruction. Warning letters (Abmahnungen) are a common first step; for private individuals, the recoverable lawyers' fees for a first warning letter are capped in certain cases. Preliminary injunctions are available in urgent cases. Online, notice-and-action procedures under the DSA and blocking duties under the UrhDaG complement court actions. Our commercial litigation team handles copyright and media disputes.

Copyright and media law checklist

• Use written licences that specify uses, territories, duration and exclusivity.
• Check collecting-society licensing for music and other repertoire.
• Clear images of identifiable people and obtain consent for commercial use.
• Label advertising and sponsored content clearly on every channel.
• Implement notice-and-action and, for upload platforms, UrhDaG processes.
• Monitor state media authority requirements for streaming and online media.

How TRW & Co helps with copyright and media law

We advise media companies, platforms, brands, agencies, technology companies and event organisers on copyright and media law: drafting and negotiating licences, production and artist agreements, negotiating with collecting societies, implementing UrhDaG and DSA processes, dealing with the state media authorities, and enforcing or defending copyright and media claims. We also advise on AI-related copyright issues and on image and personality rights. To discuss a project or dispute, contact us or see our technology and media sector page.