brandedlogodesigns complaints: Litigation between Google and VG Media continues

The ongoing dispute between Google and the exploitation company VG Media has entered a new round. Now, the Landgericht Berlin doubts the validity of the right to the right of performance.In the dispute between Google and German publishers, the Landgericht Berlin has expressed doubts about the validity of the right to protection of rights (LSR). In the case of the copyright proceedings, with which the collecting society VG Media, on behalf of the publishers, would like to collect money for snippets and previews from publishing material, the judge asked whether Germany should not have informed the European Union before the adoption of the LSR.
At the end of the black-yellow coalition in the Confederation, the Ministry of Justice decided against this so-called notification of the EU Commission - also because it would hardly have been possible to adopt the LSR before the Bundestag elections in autumn 2013. EU Member States must present draft legislation in Brussels if they contain "technical regulations" specifically aimed at "information society services".
VG Media requires notification
At the hearing on Tuesday, VG Media called on the court to submit the issue of notification directly to the European Court of Justice, in order to abridge an expensive legal process through the authorities. The court granted Google and the collecting society a period of one month to comment on this application and other matters. After that, it may take weeks before the court decides in the matter.In the trial before the regional court, the different positions of Google and the VG Media had hit hard before. The recovery company requires Google to pay damages, because the Internet company refuses to pay for the display of text excerpts and preview images in the Google search. She represents a number of press equipment in Germany, including Axel Springer, Handelsblatt, Funke and Dumont.The chairman, Peter Scholz, sharply criticized the current power protection law: "This is a very badly made law that raises many questions." In the course of the proceedings, controversial discussions were discussed as to which content may be published without the consent of the copyright protection authority. The law states that "individual words or small text excerpts" should be used freely by search engines.The VG Media said that a maximum of seven words formed the upper limit. Google stressed that the publishers benefited from longer "snippets". Users would then often click on the links leading to the publishing pages. The Google representatives argued for a fixed upper limit, because this could also be implemented without a doubt.The power protection right for press equipment entered into force on 1 August 2013. In August 2014, a number of publishers within the VG Media issued a "Gratiseinwilligung", because otherwise they were no longer represented with snippets.In the trial before the Landgericht Berlin, this time it was about the copyright aspect in the controversy. The board had already negotiated the antitrust side a year ago and in this procedure Google largely right.VG Media filed a request for the fact that the snippets displayed by Google were subject to compensation. In addition, the collecting society requested that the sales of Google in Germany be disclosed in order to be able to calculate the rate of remuneration. Google asked the court to reject the two applications of VG Media because the free use of the contents of the publishing house was covered by the wording of the right to the right of performance.