The very first collecting society for games

Abstract

In May 2023, game – The German Games Industry Association – founded the world’s first collecting society for games, the VHG – Verwertungsgesellschaft für die Hersteller von Games. The purpose of this collecting society is to assert the remuneration claims of the producers of games in Germany for legally permitted private copying. In Germany, as in many other continental European countries, there is – unlike fair use in common law – an appropriate remuneration for the limitation of the rights of authors and ancillary copyrights for private copies. These remuneration claims can only be asserted by a collecting society, which means that neither a publisher or developer nor any author itself could assert such claims. There are various legally permitted copies of games made in everyday life, for example, in the form of Let’s Plays, walkthroughs, highlights, role plays, Shadow Plays, recordings for support, in esports broadcasts, or also in the form of screenshots taken by millions of users. Copies of the game itself and installations are not covered by the copyright exceptions, because the law does not provide legal permission in the case of software or if technical copy protection measures (TPMs) are in place. The relevant remuneration claims focus on capturing, filming, or photographing the audiovisual components of the games (on screen). The remuneration is already paid by the manufacturers and importers of devices and storage media with which the reproductions are made. The payments are collected by the Central Organisation for Private Copying Rights and distributed to all rightsholders whose content is privately copied. Since the administration of remuneration claims is subject to a collecting society, a new collecting society for games had to be founded for the games industry to participate in the private copying remuneration.