Glossary A–ZLetter C
Copyright
Copyright protects personal intellectual creations such as photos, videos, graphics, texts and music, and gives their authors the right to decide whether and how their works are used.
Protection arises when the work is created; no registration is needed. In Germany it is governed by the Copyright Act (UrhG).
Anyone showing other people's works on a screen needs rights of use granted by the author or another rights holder. This applies to images bought from picture libraries as well as to music, fonts or a video from the internet. An example: a photo that can be found freely on the internet may therefore not simply be added to the playlist. For music, collecting societies handle part of the rights management.
Licences are often tied to purpose, place, duration and medium. A licence for a website does not automatically cover a screen in a shop, and a licence for one branch does not cover an entire network. Operators should document the licence and author credit for every media item. Protection generally ends 70 years after the author's death. This glossary is not legal advice.