RuZ - Recht und Zugang

In order to expand the scope for cultural heritage institutions to make their modern and contemporary collections virtually accessible, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation) has initiated a cross-disciplinary so-called...

The digital resources held by German libraries are becoming increasingly important for training generative AI models. The collection, processing and storage of texts required for this purpose involve acts of reproduction that are relevant under...

While the General Court had granted Hungary in the interim proceedings T-104/22 R, suspension of the execution of the European Commission's decision of 14 December 2021 granting partial access to correspondence between the Commission and Hungarian...

The digital revolution has fundamentally changed reading practices as well as the distribution of books and other media. Naturally, this development has also had an impact on the role which public libraries play. Currently, the ‘lending’ of...

On November 14, 2024, the German Federal Administrative Court approved the Sunday opening of libraries in North Rhine-Westphalia, after having rejected the corresponding regulation in Hesse ten years before. However, it did not expressly agree with...

Text and Data Mining (TDM) methods are often used in order to analyse large amounts of text for scientific research. If the analysed text is protected by copyright, the use of such TDM methods has copyright implications. The existing copyright...

The German National Library (DNB) endeavours to provide unrestricted access and free use of its digital collections, adapted to the usage requirements of a networked and digital information and knowledge society. In particular, copyright factors...

Access to books and university libraries is a cornerstone of educational and intellectual growth, yet in Pakistan, it faces significant challenges shaped by economic, geographic, and technological barriers. This article examines the historical...

Reproduction photography holds a prominent place in cultural studies. As early as the 19th century, its documentary function was recognised. Photographic reproductions have varying degrees of creative potential, which is relevant for the...

With Article 14 of the DSM Directive, transposed into German law in § 68 UrhG, the european legislator has taken the fundamental decision to protect the public domain. This is primarily aimed at preventing the circumvention of time limits of...

The article sheds light on the challenges and possibilities of preserving documents on anti-Semitic offences in the judicial holdings of the Hessian State Archives. It emphasises the central importance of cooperation between research and archives in...

By appraisal of procedural documents state archives identify those of sufficient value to be accessioned. In this way long-term availability of these historical sources for scientific research is ensured. The paper describes an innovative project of...

Access to court decisions is a fundamental pillar of a constitutional state. This article examines the legal framework for access to court decisions from a copyright perspective. As official works under Section 5 para. 1 of the German Copyright Act,...

State archives have the task of preserving documents of lasting value in perpetuity in order to enable the public to look back into their past. The appraisal process, in which the lasting value is determined, requires an examination of the contents...

Are criminal judgements or criminal case files a suitable source for research and, if so, how can researchers gain access to them? First, this article highlights the value of judgements for empirical research, even though they have specific...

The Bundesverfassungsgericht recently ruled that court statements by victims about sexual abuse they have experienced are part of their intimate sphere, but not part of the core area of private life, which is absolutely inviolably protected from the...

This article discusses the problem of data tracking in academic libraries in the context of the DEAL negotiations with the academic publishers Elsevier, Springer, and Wiley. The authors call for libraries and academic institutions to be made more...

Artificial intelligence is currently the subject of intense debate in connection with copyright issues. This article provides an overview of the conference on “Generative AI as reflected in copyright law” held at Free University Berlin in...

With the so-called “Kohlakten-Urteil” of March 2023, the Federal Administrative Court (Bundesverwaltungsgericht) has put a provisional end to years of dispute over access to state information and files. However, the reasons for the decision...

On November 29, 2023, a conference on archival law took place in Duisburg, organized by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State and the State Archives of Nordrhein-Westfalen. The focus was on the implementation of the General Data...

Language is the cornerstone of all legal thought and practice. Yet, language diversity is in very steep decline in international legal scholarship and practice, where English has undeniably become the dominant language. Yet, this has not always been...