Udo Lindenberg wins copyright dispute!

The Udo Lindenberg musical "Hinterm Horizont" does not infringe copyright. The Kammergericht had to decide whether the libretto to the musical constitutes a so-called non-free adaptation of another independent work capable of copyright protection, and thus a violation of the copyright of a third party.

In 2005, Berlin author Martin Verges approached Udo Lindenberg with a draft libretto based on the biography of the musician and incorporating texts of the musician's songs. Udo Lindenberg rejected the musical text created by Verges. No confidentiality agreement was concluded between Lindenberg and Verges. The musical then arose on the basis of the libretto of another author, which has been shown at the "Theater am Potsdamer Platz" for several years and deals with elements of Udo Lindenberg's life.

Verges now claimed that the text of the musical was only an insignificantly modified version of his libretto created for Udo Lindenberg. He demanded to be named as a co-author and to participate in the economic returns from the musical..

Udo Lindenberg defended himself against the allegation that his successful musical "Hinterm Horizont" was a non-free adaptation and allowed the matter to come to legal proceedings over the author's lawsuit.

Court decision

By judgment of 20 April 2015 – Az. 24 U 3/14 (Press release) – the Kammergericht dismissed the lawsuit brought by Martin Verges.

In the court's view, there was no non-free adaptation of the claimant's work. The defendant had not incorporated any text passages, scenes or dialogues that would be worthy of protection under copyright law into his libretto. The mere use of individual ideas was not sufficient for a copyright infringement. To that extent, it was not an original intellectual creation of the claimant, since the essential elements of the musical, namely the love relationship between a future rock star and a communist, the legendary concert in 1983 at the Palace of the Republic and the fall of the Berlin Wall, either existed in the biography of the musician or at least were indicated or based in historical fact.

Conclusion

Works within the meaning of the German Copyright Act are only personal intellectual creations. Ideas do not meet the requirements for the necessary work quality. Even if the Berlin author may have provided ideas to the makers of the Lindenberg musical, which they later implemented, the author could not thereby establish a copyright claim to these ideas.

The protection of ideas is a problem that, in addition to authors, many advertising agencies repeatedly face. Protection for these ideas can generally only be provided by contractual arrangements, such as the conclusion of confidentiality agreements.