Schutzgüter in der Filmkulisse

It is extremely important for movies to be able to depict real life. Third-party rights are unavoidably affected in this depiction. To free the filmmaker from managing other creator’s rights, the lawmakers have issued the copyright limitation of Section 57 of German Copyright Law (UrhG) for the “incidental inclusion”. This legal standard is construed rather strictly. According to the law, the inclusion of a prop shall not be considered incidental if it is intentionally used in a movie. The author went further and found it is not a question of being incidental, but rather a question of the audience’s perception. In addition to the copyright law, this work deals with design patent law, trademark law and with personal rights. With support from many practical examples, this work addresses judges and lawyers as well as the movie industry.