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Linking or quoting articles and the new "Leistungsschutzrecht"

Howard Gray
I recently read an interesting article in the F.A.Z. about that marvellous invention, the Wankel motor and how it may play a role in the electric vehicles of the future. I would have liked to share it with my fellow engineers in the German LN. After all, isn't that what hyperlinks are for? But because I'm a "gut gelaunte Pessimist" I wanted to make sure that I am allowed to publish at least a link to the F.A.Z.'s article so that any of you can find it. In fact, it turns out I would be treading on extremely dodgy ground: although just providing a link appears to be possible according to German law at the moment, mentioning the article's title here is actually quoting a tiny part of it - and that could incur the wrath of the F.A.Z.' s lawyers as well as a bill for EUR 50,- for each article mentioned.



I thought the F.A.Z. would actually have had some small benefit if more people read their articles. After all, what else are they there for? So, for the moment, if you would like to read the original article you will have to search for it yourself on the F.A.Z.'s website: you won't find a hyperlink to it in this post at all.



And it actually could get worse! For some time now the German Government has been considering introducing a new bill called the "Leistungsschutzrecht". It gets a mention in the new coalition contract between the CDU/CSU and SPD. Here are some real hyperlinks leading to articles about the LSR. I am fairly confident that the writers of these articles won't set their lawyers on me:



http://www.indiskretionehrensache.de/2012/06/leistungsschutzrecht-2/

http://www.opensourcepr.de/2011/02/15/verlinkt-nicht-zitiert-nicht/

http://leistungsschutzrecht.info/



I would be interested to hear any comments - and different opinions - on this and also any of your experiences writing blogs or linking to other websites, even if this is not, strictly speaking, an engineering topic.



In the meantime I think I will have to restrict myself to linking to websites run outside of Germany. Clearly the lobbyists' work in this country is as good of that of German Engineers.



--

Howard

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