Judgment on the provision of electronic books in libraries

The reason for the judgment was a year-long legal dispute between Eugen Ulmer Verlag and the TU Darmstadt . The TU Darmstadt digitized books in its possession without the permission of the publisher and made them available to its users at electronic reading points. Users could print the documents from the electronic reading stations or save them on a USB stick. did not want to take advantage of, citing the copyright barrier §52b UrhG

According to a decision by the European Court of Justice (ECJ), books owned by libraries can be digitized and made available, but cannot be made available for printing or saving on USB sticks. A final decision by the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) in April 2015 rejected the lawsuit completely and gave the TU Darmstadt the full benefit of the doubt on the grounds that no misuse of the digital copies made available could be determined or suspected.

The German Book Trade Association and the German Library Association reacted very differently to this decision . While this new ruling now gives libraries more freedom of action in making research and teaching material accessible, the Börsenverein sees this as a serious threat to future scientific publications. It is still unclear whether the Börsenverein, together with the Ulmer Verlag, will file a constitutional complaint against the ruling.

The Fraunhofer Institute for Intelligent Analysis and Info Systems has published a study on behalf of the BKM on the “ Inventory on the digitization of cultural assets and fields of action ”. The study was created in close collaboration with numerous cultural institutions, digitization centers and experts in Germany and takes international practical reports into account. The IAIS determined the digitization needs of German libraries, Archive and museums and also sheds light on questions relating to the digitization of texts or images.

We would be happy to advise you when it comes to managing images, media and documents in a structured manner. They were also used for Digital Asset Management easydb features developed that ensure secure and controlled access to data. Contact us .