Copyright (Urheberrecht)

In practice

In the day-to-day running of a small business, copyright is rarely about the business’s own works and almost always about other people’s. Photos on the website, a font in the layout, a map in the legal notice (Impressum), music in a video: using protected works generally requires permission. That is why the source, licence terms, scope and date of every image belong in a list. Common mistakes are missing attribution to the author, or a stock image that was licensed only for the website and then ends up in the catalogue. The second gap concerns the business’s own side. Whatever agencies or freelancers create stays with them for as long as the business lacks the necessary rights of use. Where employees create software as part of their duties, the business is generally entitled by law to exploit it.