Sebastian Wangnick schrieb:
So the "Recht auf das wissenschaftliche Kleinzitat" allows a European author to "quote" small portions of e.g. GPL code without asking the author for permissions. The European "Urheberrecht" on the other side forbids a minor contributor to govern the license for the project that makes use of the "Recht auf das wissenschaftliche Kleinzitat".I'm not sure whether his conclusion is complete. According to http://www.sakowski.de/skripte/urheber2.html, citing is not allowed to replace (only to illustrate or backup) own statements of the author. I would therefore presume that whilst "quoting" GPL code, e.g., in a comment, to illustrate ones own approach might be OK, using GPL code as a mandatory element in the software would not be OK. But I am not a lawyer ...
You are essentially right: In german Urheberrecht, § 51 UrhG allows for citing works as far as necessary for the purpose of the citation. Replacing own work isn't among the legal purposes for a citation. See Wandtke/Bullinger, UrhG, § 51 Rn. 2.
But you should consider too that trivial works are not protectable in german law. A program needs to express some kind of choice between different approaches to a problem, instead of simply following technical necessities. See Wandtke/Bullinger, § 69a Rn. 34/35. As far as I understand part of the argument with Mr. Schily is about Makefiles, these might be trivial (I'm no programmer).
Michael Below -- Michael Below Rechtsanwalt www.judiz.de -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
