Our team of specialists is here to help you in every music law (international and german-based) matters. Do not hesitate to contact us.
By filling out our contact form you will be able to get in touch with our main office at any time. One of our attorneys will then get back to you as soos as possible!
Our colourful and specialized team covers many different fields of law. There is no matter we can not analyze from a legal point of view. Send us an email for more information.
Due to our reach network and contacts, we are always able to help you wherever you are, at any time. Phone consultations are also available. Contact Us!
High standards for high results - And even more at Horak Attorneys at Law.
"It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed." – Napolean Hill
“Creativity is contagious, pass it on.” – Albert Einstein
“It is easier to do a job right than to explain why you did not.” ― Martin Van Buren
Everything you want to know about German music law, European copyright law and international law.
Copyright can be divided into three components: Exploitation rights, Right of use and Moral Rights.
The exploitation/utilization rights are regulated in §§ 15 to 24 UrhG. These include the: reproduction right, distribution right, right of exhibition, and the right of communication to the public.
These rights belong solely to the author, i.e. the composer, and cannot be transferred to other persons. Only upon the composer’s death do the exploitation rights pass to his or her heirs. However, it is possible to grant a right of use to others.
Sections 31 to 44 UrhG regulate the rights of use of the authors. The composers may decide to grant their musical works to third parties for exploitation – e.g. record companies, publishers or musicians.
The moral rights of an author are found in §§ 12 to 14 UrhG. A composer always has the right to be named as the author of his or her work. The author is also protected by law against distortion of the work; this means that the author’s personal interests in his/her work are endangered – e.g. in the case of deterioration or distorted representation of the work.
Is the copyright of musicians transferable?
A composer cannot transfer the copyright in a musical work as such. This is also not possible by means of a contract. However, it is possible to grant others a right to use the work. To do this, a licence agreement is concluded which contains the most important information about the scope of use and the remuneration.
Are you a musician or an artist and you would like to be supported by a competent international music law firm? Contact us. We are the team you are looking for.
a massive role in the field of music law. Among the largest are the Gesellschaft für musikalische Aufführungs- und mechanische Vervielfältigungsrechte (GEMA) and the Gesellschaft zur Verwertung von Leistungsschutzrechten (GVL), which primarily look after the financial interests of the respective artists.
We are international music and copyright ale experts. Book your appointment now – we will get back to you very soon.
When a musician samples, he takes fragments from other people’s songs. Does he thereby violate copyright or is that freedom of art? The BGH has decided. Here an overview of the legal dispute from an article of the German https://www.tagesschau.de/inland/bgh-urheberrecht-101.html). In music, sampling refers to the process of using a part of an – already finished – sound or music recording in a new, often musical context. Nowadays, this is usually done with a hardware or software sampler, i.e., the selected sound sample is usually digitized and stored so that it can be further processed with audio programs.
Why have they been arguing about this in court for years? A german rapper, singer and music producer thinks to this day that he was allowed to simply take the “music snippet” into his song. Legally, the issue is the conflict between artistic freedom and the rights one has as a producer of a sound carrier. These are the so-called copyrights and ancillary copyrights: “The author of a sound record has the exclusive right to reproduce, distribute and make the sound carrier available to the public,” the Copyright Act states.
What can we now expect from the BGH’s ruling? With its decision, the BGH must implement the guidelines of the ECJ judges. After hearing the case in January, it does not look like the judges in Karlsruhe will simply “wave through” the rapper´s sampling. So the question remains whether the artistic sound sequence in the song is recognizable or not. To have this clarified, the BGH could refer the case back to the Hamburg Higher Regional Court. If Pelham loses, the case could even go back to the Federal Constitutional Court. After all, he won there in 2016. Either way, the principles laid down by the courts affect the hip-hop and music scene as a whole.
Musician, artists, writers: you know who to call. Horak Attorneys at law: your international law firm for music law.