Legal Aspects of Press and Copyright Law

Media content is generally protected by copyright - both texts and photos in print editions and content from online magazines, websites or social media.

Articles published in the press

If you would like to use individual press articles for your own purposes, you require the explicit written permission of the chief editor of the respective medium, and you should retain this permission in any case. The indication of a source reference alone is not sufficient. Licenses must be acquired in individual cases.

In all other cases, publications violate copyright law and may be subject to warnings and/or further consequences under criminal or civil law. This also applies if you are the author of an article or report published in a newspaper, magazine or similar.

Social media

The situation is different with content published on social networks, such as Facebook, that you want to post and share. This is usually unproblematic and legal as long as it is just sharing public posts from other users. However, it is against copyright law to publish screenshots or photos of newspaper articles.

Photos and video

There are also a few things to keep in mind when dealing with image rights. This includes, for example, obtaining a permission form from the persons depicted before publishing pictures. Rights of use must also be clarified. We have summarized the legal aspects of photo, video and audio recordings for you on a separate page.

Further information

Please always check carefully whether you are allowed to use third-party content such as text, photos, videos, audio files, etc.