(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar)
The second draft of the Copyright Act for the Information Society, including amendments proposed by the legal committee of the Parliament, was voted on 5 July by the majority of the German Bundestag and sent to Bundersrat for review.
Although Brigitte Zypries (SPD), the Minister of Justice, expressed her satisfaction for finally completing an important act, representatives of the left party and the greens accuse the government of not taking into consideration the interests of the educators and researchers, believing that the right to private copy cannot be exerciced as long as DRM systems are in place. Furthermore, they have shown concern for the fact that the new version of the act does no longer include the clause that was considering file sharing in P2P networks a minor offence.
The act is focused on compensation fees for private copies that can be established independently by the industry and copyright representatives and banning copies from "illegal sources". Regulations have been included to restrict electronic reading stations in museums and libraries.
Dr. Günter Krings, CDU MP, considers the Act should be further more amended to allow only for copies of the original and spoke of "intelligent" recording software as "legally tantamount to an illegal file-sharing network". In his opinion, "there must be an end to the freebie mentality in our society."
Jerzy Montag of the Greens expressed his opinion that while copyright applies to everyone, no property right is absolute and that the offered by the state "is limited by the rights of others." He showed concern that education and research have not been properly covered by the act. This opinion is also shared by Jörg Tauss (SPD) and Carsten Müller (CDU), who deal with education policy issues. They believe knowledge promoted by public funding should also be made available to the public.
German parliament passes new Copyright Act (6.07.2007)
http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/92318
Fewer private copies, more copyright fees: an overview of the main
stipulations in the "second basket" of the amended Copyright Act (only in
German, 5.07.2007)
http://www.heise.de/ct/hintergrund/meldung/92265