Free Ebook: how to check if they are under copyright in Germany ?

[Frantic 72]

Apart Gutenberg Project, I found a site with a good selection of "classics". It is less messy of Project Gutenberg and books are more "well presented", The site appears to be a legit and well known one, nothing "underdog" or illegal.

The problem is that they put this disclaimer on each page where you can download a book (no matter if it is an "ancient" Dialogues by Plato or a less "ancient" Michael Strogoff by Verne):

 

This ebook is only thought to be free of copyright restrictions in the United States. It may still be under copyright in other countries. If you’re not located in the United States, you must check your local laws to verify that the contents of this ebook are free of copyright restrictions in the country you’re located in before downloading or using this ebook.

 

How I can check if a book is still protected by copyright laws in Germany ?

 

EDIT

I have found here https://cand.pglaf.org/germany/index.html this info

 

Q: Who are the authors? Why are they copyrighted in Germany, but not the the US?
A:

• Heinrich Mann, who died in 1950.
• Thomas Mann, who died in 1955.
• Alfred Döblin, who died in 1957.

In Germany, they are copyrighted based on "life +70 years" of copyright protection (so, copyright will expire after 2020, 2025 and 2027, respectively). In the US, copyright protection for works published prior to 1978 is based on the number of years since publication.

 

Can be this a correct rule ? Any clarification or help will be welcome

[keith2011 2,648]

As I understand it copyright law is very much based on the assumption that what is protected is hardcopy so if you view copyrighted material online that is not illegal any more than reading a book you did not actually purchase is. I believe that also applies even if the material had been put online in contravention of copyright law.

What would be illegal would be if you downloaded it,  copied and printed it or otherwise made it available, for example online, for someone else or downloaded via a "torrent" since that process also involves you in uploading the item for further distribution.

I would guess that downloading material still under copyright to an ebook would be illegal since much like making a hardcopy it would be available for viewing by someone else, I am not a lawyer though so don't take that as gospel!

[pappnase 2,625]

I think your interpretation is bobbins keith copyright exists in online work as much as hardcopy.

Rule1 is always If in doubt don't download it. 

 

Personally I think the likelihood of any criminal sanctions for downloading is remarkably small, the burden of proof regarding who did the downloading is much too high.

This is obviously different to the situation regarding civil prosecution, but there your liabilities are limited to actual costs incurred, so the cost of the book you downloaded + the legal costs of whoever goes after you for it. Even that is very low risk when you are downloading directly from a remote website though, the chances of a German lawyer getting hold of the server logs for the download site and directly going after you for the cost of a book is small.

 

What is much more risky is any kind of 'peer to peer' sharing like torrents etc, the issue there is that you are also uploading the file, and the German courts have considered that the harm to the copyright owner is much higher and awarded bigger damages.

 

Note that none of this is legal advice, if you need legal advice you should seek out a qualified and licensed legal professional.

 

[keith2011 2,648]

1 hour ago, pappnase said:

I think your interpretation is bobbins keith copyright exists in online work as much as hardcopy.

I certainly did not say that copyright does not apply online what I said was that the laws are based on an assumption that the material is hardcopy, thus as per my example it would be ridiculous to penalise someone for reading a book they had say borrowed from a friend or indeed  penalise the borrower, the loss to the copyright owner is negligible. On the same basis it is not an infringement of copyright to view copyrighted material online however given that it may be available to millions the potential loss to the copyright owner could be very high and so penalties for uploading are correspondingly high but there are still no penalties for viewing it!

[pappnase 2,625]

 

1 hour ago, keith2011 said:

On the same basis it is not an infringement of copyright to view copyrighted material online

 

Hmm I think that you are wrong, but that it probably isn't important

I don't think it matters in practical terms, in that no-one is going to know or care what was downloaded unless some effort is made to share it, but I find it very hard to be sure that it isn't a copyright infringement.

 

My reasoning is that by viewing the material you are causing a copy to be made and therefore copyright has been infringed by someone.

The question then becomes who committed the act, was it the owner of site or the user of the site?

Logically I think it would make more sense to go after the owner but I don't know German copyright law well enough to be sure.

Certainly in the UK it has been the case that they chased users because the server owners were in a different legal jurisdiction. (albeit in cases where it was clear which user was responsible for the infringement such as showing live sport in a pub)

 

[optimista 5,885]

I do not believe there are the resources, human or othersise, to implément copyright law. Whoever wants their cut has to find you first. Needle. Haystack.

[Frantic 72]

Sorry but I am not asking If I will be caught or not

 

Usually copyright decades automatically after a certain amount of time. This can change from country to country. I am asking if anyone knows how it works in Germany.

What I found for Germany till now is the rule "death date + 70 years". After that date there are not anymore copyrights.

[optimista 5,885]

I quote wikipedia

 

Germany has implemented the EU Copyright Directive 93/98/EEC. Parts of the Directive were based on German authors' right law in the first place, e.g. the duration of copyright term : German authors' right law had previously granted protection for 70 years after the death of the author, [11] which was the longest term of all EU member states ; prior to 1965, the protection was life plus 80 years.