Ever since Germany adopted its current draconian copyright legislation, several news stories about software companies moving away from the German market have emerged. However, linking to such material from third party websites has been grey area until now. German district court ruled last week that German website Heise.de has violated country's copyright legislation by linking to SlySoft's website. SlySoft is the maker of AnyDVD, a software product that allows cracking the copyright protection found on most DVD-Video discs, and CloneCD, a tool that allows backing up virtually all of the copy protected audio CDs.
Website defended itself by pointing out to the freedom of speech that is defined in German constitution, but the first-instance district court of Munich I ruled that the protection on intellectual property goes before the freedom of speech. Court also ignored the claims that anyone could have simply entered the software product's name to a search engine and found the product anyway. Apparently, court decided that direct linking made finding the product much easier and thus increased the danger of copyright violations significantly.
On good side, court also ruled that articles about tools that allow breaking copy protection mechanisms can be published legally, it is just the linking to such tools that can't be done legally in Germany. Court ruled Heise Zeitschriften Verlag, the owner company of the website, to pay 500,000 euros in damages to the music industry.
Source: Heise.de announcement
On good side, court also ruled that articles about tools that allow breaking copy protection mechanisms can be published legally, it is just the linking to such tools that can't be done legally in Germany. Court ruled Heise Zeitschriften Verlag, the owner company of the website, to pay 500,000 euros in damages to the music industry.
Source: Heise.de announcement
