Copyright law safeguards copyright holders’ intellectual and personal relationships to their work. To enjoy this protection, works need to cross a “threshold of originality.” Under this principle, the works must have originated in a creative process and reflect an intellectual achievement. A shopping list would not be subject to copyright, but a notebook containing a draft of a novel would. Copyright is the basis for usage rights. Copyright holders have complete discretion over who may share and publish their work. If you want to share copyrighted works on Jewish Places, you need to obtain usage rights in writing.
Rights holders can demand for the protected work to be immediately taken down from the website and no longer be accessible. In a subsequent step, claims for compensation may be made.
Works only fall into the public domain when their original copyright owners have been dead for more than 70 years. To find out whether something is in the public domain, you need to know the identity of the original copyright owner. For more recent images, texts, or videos, it is therefore important to find out who holds the rights and ask that person for the consent to use their work.
It is not permitted to publish private information about just any individual. Only for individuals categorized by German law as Personen der Zeitgeschichte (“persons of contemporary history”) is this allowed without the explicit consent of the person in question. A “person of contemporary history” is someone who is permanently in the public eye due to their work (e.g. as an author) or status (e.g. as a member of a royal family). However, even in that case, the exception only applies if the personal information serves the opinion-forming process for a relevant public debate.
The dead enjoy what it is called “post-mortem personality rights.” These rules prohibit disparaging the memory of the dead (e.g. making unfounded accusations of crimes). However, this is only enforced in the case of gross and serious disparagement (for example, if a person is accused of serious crimes).
In Germany, everyone has rights over their own image. If a person is depicted in a photograph or a video, you will need their permission. For ten years after the person depicted has died, you will require permission from their relatives.
Overall, it should be written in a benevolent tone. All information must be verifiable. Whenever publishing images or videos of people, you should obtain consent no matter what.
If there is a violation of personality rights, the aggrieved party is initially entitled to a injunction. In other words, the texts or images will need to be taken down immediately. In the case of statements about individuals, retraction of the allegation and a correcting statement may be demanded. Furthermore, a claim for damages may arise.
Yes, Germany protects a principle known as Panorama-Freiheit (“panorama freedom”). All buildings in public space may be photographed. However, you may only show the exteriors. In addition, the location of the camera must be accessible to the general public without assistance. For example, if you take a photograph of a building from a window across the street, that no longer falls under Panorama-Freiheit. And in that case, too, copyright law applies.
Yes, you may use images if you comply with the licensing provisions of Jewish Places. You can find the licensing terms (e.g. CC-by-SA 4.0) directly underneath the images. The licensing terms are linked to the website of the Creative Commons organization, which specifies whether and how you can disseminate the images. Videos are embedded in Jewish Places directly from YouTube or Vimeo. You can find the licensing terms for the videos on those platforms.
No matter the license, you are always permitted to share links to any content on Jewish Places.
Content may be disseminated according to the Creative Commons rules.
However, some pieces of content may not be shared. Verbatim quotations from copyright-protected texts are only reproduced within the bounds of fair use (German Zitatrecht). They are subject to the author’s copyright and can only be disseminated as quotations. You can find more information more on how you may use quotations at Wikipedia.
Yes, you may quote copyright-protected texts. However, the quotation may not be longer than the article itself. Very long quotations (of multiple paragraphs) are only permitted if the texts are in the public domain. Quotations must also be in keeping with the text. Verbatim quotes are a good choice if the precise wording of a text is important. If you can make the same point just as well using your own words, a quotation is unnecessary. Please use quotation marks to indicate a quote and always list the source in the “Sources/Bibliography” using the formats listed above.
Jewish Places can easily remove content from the website. However, once an image or text from Jewish Places has been redistributed on the Internet under a CC license, the Jewish Places editorial time has no way to take down that content. The media can then be shared by others. In other words, content can only be taken down to a limited degree.
At the bottom of each info panel, there are two buttons: “Report a Problem” and “Request Deletion.” In the case of severe violations of copyright or personality rights, you should request deletion. If the information only needs to be improved, you can report a problem.
If text by another author is reproduced without being clearly marked as a quotation, it counts as plagiarism. Plagiarism is a violation of copyright law and must be avoided. Textual structures and specific wordings are protected by law, but not facts. In other words, you can copy factual information. If you take the effort to express information in your own words and structure your text in your own way, you can avoid plagiarism.