Category copyright infringement

Hamburg Higher Regional Court – Music Law

Decision of the 11.10.2018, 5 U 57/15

What if you decide to write a music album… and someone else decides to publish the same music you have just written? Is it just a case? Did they copied you? What does the law says about these kind of legal disputes?

In detail:

The author of a music work X decides to sue the author of the song Y, because the music is alleged to be copied from the pre-existing work X. This is

This is a real case that the OLG Hamburg solved with a strong and firm tribunal decision.

The Hamburg Regional Court dismissed the case. Yes, you read that right. In fact, it is true that the X work of music own the right of protect ability, however, the composition of the Y music had minor deviations. The possibility of double creation was thus given. It could not be proved that the protectable guitar melody was taken over from the pre-existing work.

The second expert of the Court of Appeal referred to the frequent occurrence of the chord sequence (Turnaorund) and that the guitar figures could easily be derived from finger exercises. A double creation was therefore very likely.

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The district court of Düsseldorf has decided!

(Landgericht Düsseldorf, Urteil vom 12.06.2019 – 12 O 263/18 – )

Acquisition of rights of use from GEMA for musical works as stage representation is not possible!

The District Court of Düsseldorf has decided that the Schauspielhaus Düsseldorf must refrain from performing the music composed and arranged by the sound artist Parviz Mir-Ali for the Schauspielhaus Dresden to “Der Idiot” by Fjodor Dostojewski.

The case was based on the following facts: In 2015, the well-known sound artist Parviz Mir-Ali had composed the music for the stage play “Der Idiot” by Fjodor Dostojewski in the production of Matthias Hartmann for the Staatsschauspiel Dresden. In 2016 the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus took over the production from Dresden together with the music composed by Mir-Ali. For the 2016/2017 season, the Schauspielhaus Düsseldorf paid the sound artist an agreed lump sum. The Schauspielhaus refused payments for the further seasons 2017/2018 and 2018/2019 with reference to its payments to GEMA. The plaintiff sound artist saw his copyrights violated with the performances.

The Düsseldorf Regional Court ruled in favour of the plaintiff. […]

Source: © kostenlose-urteile.de (ra-online GmbH), Berlin 12.06.2019
Quelle: Landgericht Düsseldorf/ra-online (pm/kg)