The Hamburg Regional Court convicted in a civil action the defendant, who in 2006 had set as nearly six-year-old in violation of copyright law two recordings in an Internet exchange, to claim damages in the amount of € 15, - to pay for each song to the plaintive music publishers. Any further claim for compensation was rejected as well as the action for damages against the father of the defendant (Judgement of 8 October 2010 - 308 Õ 710/09).
The minor defendant, in June 2006 on the Internet also sued his father without his knowledge, two songs in an Internet exchange market. As usual, could the files via file sharing other participants could be accessed and downloaded. The applicants claimed as owner of the record companies rights to the recordings of the two defendants because of the unauthorized usage at € 300, - per exposure compensation paid to them.
The LG has decided that minors the applicants is obliged to pay compensation. He had violated the copyrights culpably and unlawfully when he has copied the songs without permission and posted on the Internet. On the law of the plaintiffs were also the reproduction right and the right of public access. When the amount of damages, however, but must be parked on what reasonable parties would have agreed with the conclusion of a fictitious license agreement as a reasonable royalty for the use of music recordings. Since there is no directly applicable tariff for being valued uses, the appropriate license must be estimated. Now comes the really interesting part: In the Court considered that it was in question were indeed connections to such famous artists that the recordings of 2006, but already many years old. Thereafter, only a limited demand could be adopted. Moreover, since they claimed that a short period in which the titles were available for downloading, the court estimated that there are 100 at most to downloads could have occurred per title. In orientation to the GEMA-rate VR-OD 5 (use of works in the way of the music-on-demand for private use) and to the settlement proposal of the arbitration board of the German Patent and Trademark Office on 5 May 2010 has in arbitration proceedings between the BITKOM and GEMA, the court, the proper license to € 15, - estimated per title.
The action for damages against the father of the minor defendant was rejected by the district court on the grounds that this was neither perpetrators nor participants in the copyright infringement. Although he was regarded as troublemakers, because he had found his son in breach of the duties of monitoring Internet connection. Through this Behavior is considered by the LG Hamburg, however, does not create liability for damages.
Related links on the pages of the law firm Dr. Palm:
music, file sharing and legal
disturber liability - troublemakers - perpetrators
control duties - parental duties
Cologne District Court for file sharing
