Dear All,
I am sorry for writing in English, but my German is not good.
I am working in some German Institute and I conducted a seminar there. I gave the students an idea where they can work on and implement it. I followed the student step by step during the seminar to achieve this work.
During the seminar; I told the students several times that we can submit this work to good event. And at the last session in the semester, I explicitly told them that we can participate with this work in another event and if they would like to continue working on this idea? But they said no, we are busy with other things and we do not want to continue.
Since they said NO, I assumed that there job was ended by the end of the seminar. And they got there grads on September 13, 2012.
Later, at the end of October 2012, I prepared everything based on the results that I got in this seminar and submitted to one event without putting their names as contributors. I got an acceptance from that event at the end of November 2012.
Now, the students came to me and asked why I did not put their names?
I said to them, you said: "we do not want to continue at the last session."
I would like to point here that, at the last session I invited two collogues to help me in the evaluation and they heard me when I said to them if you would like continue this work and participate in that event.
My questions are:
-Do I have right to use the results from that seminar without putting the name of the students, since it is my seminar and my idea and I worked with the student very closely to achieve this work?
-What is the German law says about such a case?
-If the students have the right, what should I do?
-Am I liable for any legal accountability?
Thank you in advance,
Using results from working seminar
Notfall oder generelle Fragen?
Notfall oder generelle Fragen?
quote:<hr size=1 noshade>Do I have right to use the results from that seminar without putting the name of the students, since it is my seminar and my idea and I worked with the student very closely to achieve this work? <hr size=1 noshade>
According to German copyright law (UrhG), you and your students are joint authors of the work.
What one joint author may do with the joint work without the permission of the others depends on the specific case.
E.g. one joint author may not withhold his consent to publication/use without good cause, §8 II UrhG .
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""
They worked only for the seminar (grades) and they clearly said: we do not want to continue working out the seminar scope. And I said to them I want to continue this work. And I submitted the work after the end of the semester and after they got their evaluation with at least 1.5 months.
Are they still having the right to claim against me? If yes, what is the penalty that I might face if they want to the court?
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quote:
and they clearly said: we do not want to continue working out the seminar scope
Still that doesn't constitute a waiver of copyrights (which isn't possible by German law anyway) or an indirect permission to use their work in any way you see fit.
Let's take a simpler example: you and 3 friends are in a band and record a song together. Your friends say they have no interest in playing the same or another song with you again. Does that mean you have the right to put the song on a record and sell it? No, at least not in general.
quote:
Are they still having the right to claim against me?
Basically yes, but as I quoted above, it depends on the circumstances of the individual case.
quote:
If yes, what is the penalty that I might face if they want to the court?
Damages. The amount will of course depend on your case.
Also, possibly injunctive relief (which may incur significant laywer fees which the losing party has to reimburse).
-- Editiert BuffySlayer am 11.01.2013 13:00
Thank you for the detailed answer.
The case not is exactly similar to the band, because they will not have any bad consequences if they are not mentioned. And if I did not continue, the work will be ended and died by the end of the seminar.
In the opposite, when they saw some success of the work that I continued, they return to get some benefits from that.
I am not sure if they want to go to the court, I will try to solve this problem before this stage.
But in case they want to the court, you think that my chance is not high for defense?
1.) If I do not want to publish my text nor want it to be published, and then finally my text is published by my co-author,
then I still have the right to be mentioned as a co-author on the copy of my text - or our text:
UrhG § 13
Anerkennung der Urheberschaft:
"Der Urheber hat das Recht auf Anerkennung seiner Urheberschaft am Werk. Er kann bestimmen, ob das Werk mit einer Urheberbezeichnung zu versehen und welche Bezeichnung zu verwenden ist."
No matter if I agree or disagree to the publication of my text!
To be precise: My co-author has no right at all to publish our common text without my consten! But I can not deny my consent without reason, als Poster BuffySlayer
had already underlined.
Your first mistake was: You did not ask for the consent of your co-authors -> UrhG § 8
Miturheber: "(2) Das Recht zur Veröffentlichung und zur Verwertung des Werkes steht den Miturhebern zur gesamten Hand zu;"
Your second mistake was to think, being not interested in any publication at all is a kind of consent to a publication.
Your third mistake was to think: If they are not interested in publication, they are not interested to be named as co-authors in case
of publication.
Mistake number 3 is mentioned in § 97 Absatz 3: "... wegen des Schadens, der nicht Vermögensschaden ist, eine Entschädigung in Geld ..."
Some courts in Germany said, that "forgetting" to name an author doubles the price you have to pay the author for forgetting to aks him for his allowance to publish his text.
Gruß aus Berlin, Gerd
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"I shot the sheriff,
but I did not shoot the deputy."
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