Zur Zukunft des Urheberrechts im Zeitalter vollständiger Digitalisierung künstlerischer Leistungen

To save our basic understanding of intellectual property as being underpinned, regulated and structured by the moral rights of the individual author from its erosion due to neglect in the media, we need to steer away from a copyright system that focuses only on the creator's right and towards a legal trilateral-protection of copyright protected works for the benefit of authors and users plus intermediaries. We need a copyright turn! The basic idea of a content flatrate – exemplified in the paper by way of a (proposed) general exemption clause for education and scienc – shows the need for deeper and more intensive discussions about the use of cultural assets in the framework of internet-based services. We should no longer wait for suitable solutions. Otherwise we seriously endanger creative artists as well as neighbouring right owners. Therefore, we are obliged to continuously re-examine the practical concretion of our constitutional guarantees for the protection of intellectual property. In a pluriversum of diverse ideas we need specific and unambiguous solutions to defend intellectual property against bargain-hunting mentality and simultaneously to prevent the emergence of constitutive monopolies of information providers, such as Google. If the ideologically neutral, but not value-free community and state are interested in preserving the right to cultural achievements as part of natural law at the same time encouraging learning and the progress of society in general, new digital types of use of copyright protected works have to be subject to a liability rule. That is, these types of use should be exempted from the exclusive right, while subjecting them to a duty to pay a remuneration fee. Correspondingly, intermediaries, who gain financial advantage in prosperous trade with the said cultural content matter, must increasingly be held liable and have to contribute to the revenue chain. Die Zukunft des Urheberrechts gerät immer mehr in die Gefahr der Verharmlosung der grundlegenden Probleme und Interessenkonflikte in diesem Bereich. Einerseits wird national wie unionsrechtlich und international darauf hingewiesen, der Schutz des geistigen Eigentums sei unzureichend; andererseits werden Forderungen nach angemessener Vergütung und einem erweiterten Zugang im besonders sensiblen Bereich der Online-Nutzung erhoben. Aus einer Perspektive, die alle am Urheberrecht interessierten Kreise berücksichtigt, wird hier, dargestellt am Beispiel der Forschung und Bildung, der Versuch unternommen neue, mutige Wege zur Lösung eines drängenden Problems zu gehen.