Digitale Inhalte – Verkehrsfähigkeit oder Lizenzketten?

When speaking about the free circulation of digital goods, the legal question whether copyright licenses are transferable is raised. In its »UsedSoft/Oracle« decision of 2012, the ECJ held that, in general, the copyright owner cannot restrict the resale of »used software«. However, this decision did not encompass other digital goods or even »hybrid goods« like computer games. The author is of the opinion that German legislators may want to consider modifying Section 34 of the German copyright act (§ 34 UrhG) with respect to standardized digital goods: the purchaser of a digital good could then transfer the copyright license in the digital good to a subsequent purchaser without the copyright owner's consent provided that a »license chain« is in place. A related pressing issue is that under German civil law a purchaser of a digital good may not transfer or assign the license agreement itself to a subsequent purchaser without the copyright owner's consent. Without such consent, the assignment is invalid and no contractual rights or obligations exist between the copyright owner and a subsequent purchaser of the digital good.