German Supreme Court says cloud services do not have to pay copyright fees

Big Tech off the hook in blow to artists

Life

In a move that will prove popular with Big Tech, the German Supreme Court (Bundesgerichtshof) has ruled that providers of cloud services do not have to pay compensation for private copies of media that users store in the cloud.

Copyright law in Germany stipulates that this compensation only applies to physical devices and storage media, such as CDs or DVDs. The EU Copyright Directive also does not require that cloud services fall under this regulation.

The case was brought by the ZPÜ (Zentralstelle für private Überspielungsrechte), which, on behalf of various copyright organisations, demanded compensation from companies including Dropbox. However, this claim was rejected by the judges.

The ZPÜ had already called on politicians last year to introduce a cloud levy in Germany.

Does this mean that consumers will be able to upload movies and music they bought on other media to the cloud without fear of prosecution for piracy? For the moment the law remains unchanged and, unless specificied by the copyright owner, your rights begin and end on the media you made your purchase with. This just means it’s not Big Tech’s problem what happens thereafter.

Emerce

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