Act on Copyright Content Sharing Service Providers

The Act on Copyright Content Sharing Service Providers (UrhDaG) is the German transposition of the controversial Art. 17 Directive (EU) 2019/790 (DSMD). Instead of a minimum effort copy-paste implementation into the German Copyright Act (UrhG), the German legislator opted for a comprehensive stand-alone act with extensive provisions on, e.g.

• an OCSSP with a safe-harbour clause for excluded service providers
• the obligation to acquire contractual rights of use
• direct remuneration for authors, performers, and photographers

This article-by-article commentary offers a clearly and uniformly structured analysis of the provisions, shows the extensive discussions that accompanied the implementation procedure, and addresses the interplay of the UrhDaG with the UrhG and the respective requirements of the DSMD. Benjamin Raue is a Professor of Private Law, Digital and IP Law at Trier University. Louisa Specht-Riemenschneider is a Professor of Private Law, Data Economy Law, Data Protection Law, Law of Digitalisation and AI Law at the University of Bonn.