Photograph copyright (Germany)
Open-knowledge reference entry
In Germany, photo rights or "Bildrechte" are the copyrights that are attached to the "author" of the photograph and are specified in the "Law for Copyright and similar Protection" ("Gesetz über Urheberrecht und verwandte Schutzrechte"). These rights deal with rights of reproduction, distribution, modification, attribution, and prohibitions against illegal modification or reproduction. The ownership rights of a picture are treated under the broader "art copyright laws". Furthermore, if a museum or gallery owns a work of art or a photograph, they are permitted to make their own stipulations as to the selling of illustrations and reproductions of their property. This relates to the German legal concept of the right of owner to undisturbed possession. Wolf Vostell said: "Copyrights are like human rights".
Periods of protection
Photographs (Lichtbilder)
According to § 72 Abs. 3 UrhG, copyrights for most photographs and pictures expire fifty years after their first publication. If the picture is not published for a period of 50 years after production of the photograph, then the protection ends. As long as the work appears at least once in that period, the period of protection is extended until 50 years after its first publication.
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This entry incorporates text from “Photograph copyright (Germany)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.