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Germany Says Taking Photos Of Food Infringes The Chef's Copyright
xPertCodert writes: According to this article in Der Welt (Google translate from German), in Germany if you take a picture of a dish in a restaurant without prior permission, you are violating chef's copyright for his creation and can be liable to pay a hefty fine. If this approach to foodporn will become universal, what will we put in our Instagrams? Techdirt reports: "Apparently, this situation goes back to a German court judgment from 2013, which widened copyright law to include the applied arts too. As a result, the threshold for copyrightability was lowered considerably, with the practical consequence that it was easier for chefs to sue those who posted photographs of their creations without permission. The Die Welt article notes that this ban can apply even to manifestly unartistic piles of food dumped unceremoniously on a plate if a restaurant owner puts up a notice refusing permission for photos to be taken of its food."
We do not have jurors in Germany. At least not in the way as in the US. A judge deterimes the outcome.
I have read TFA (and no, I am most certainly not new here) and it is full of hypothetical blah blah. Basically, some lawyer thinks that when the food has been artistically arranged, one has to ask the chef first before making photos, or one possibly might receive a cease-and-desist letter if the chef sees the photo and is in the mood for writing one. Never happened so far but maybe possibly might happen some day. Also can happen if the eating place owner generally doesn't allow taking photos.
"It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
Anything exposing the ridiculousness of copyright is welcome.
I agree with you in principle, but in practice, the absurdities only seem to be accumulating, not going away.
.But we do have lay judges (Schöffen)
For our non-German friends: Instead of judge and jury we have a panel of judges, some of whom (sometimes the whole panel with one exception) may not be studied lawyers but citizen 'drafted' to judge duty for a year or so.