Private individuals

ProLitteris offers licenses under the Common Tariffs (CT) in the name of all collecting societies.

These include the royalty for copying in schools and organizations (Common Tariffs 7 and 8), for renting in libraries and video rental stores (Common Tariff 5), and for uses by people with disabilities (Common Tariff 10).

In these cases, ProLitteris is responsible, in the name of all domestic and foreign collecting societies, for collecting and distributing the royalties.

In addition, ProLitteris grants contractual licenses. In these cases, specific works are licensed upon request from the licensees.

You can obtain a contractual license from ProLitteris if you wish to do the following:

• Reproduce specific artworks on the internet, in books, as printed matter, or in another form, provided that the artist concerned is represented by ProLitteris (Sector Art)
• Use specific works from collections or archives, provided that the rights holders are unknown or cannot be located (Tariff CT 13 for orphan works)
• Use a large number of texts or images, provided that the normal management of the rights is not impaired in this way, for example for "open archive", for internally used AI systems, or for minor extensions of statutory limitations (extended collective license, ECL)
• Use texts and other literary works as a broadcasting organization (Sector Audio)

With a license from ProLitteris, you keep copyright under control. In return for a transparent and moderate royalty, you ensure that no rights of authors, artists, photographers, publishing houses, and other rights holders are infringed.

The licenses granted by ProLitteris depend on the sector in which they are granted.

For copying levies and other statutory licenses (mandatory collective management), ProLitteris contacts you. You declare the required information via the form or portal, and ProLitteris invoices you for the correct royalty. If you do not provide complete information, ProLitteris has to estimate the data and determine the royalty accordingly.

For contractual licenses (voluntary collective management: reproducing works of art, orphan works or extended collective licenses (ECL)), you take action yourself:

• You submit a license request to ProLitteris.
• ProLitteris then defines the scope of application and the costs.
• You receive the license and the corresponding invoice.

Licenses from ProLitteris always ensure legally compliant use and compliance with copyright. All tariffs, agreements and royalties are legally reviewed and are subject to supervision.

Certain uses are permitted by law and do not require a license from rights holders.

In certain cases, the law allows protected content to be used without consent:

• Use in a personal circle, at work, and in education
• Quotations and reporting, provided the source is indicated where necessary and there is engagement with it
• Freedom of panorama, when works are visible in public spaces
• Exhibition catalogues and directories of collections

These uses are subject to legal requirements and are only permitted within the respective framework.

When the law provides for a royalty for such use, ProLitteris or another collecting society takes care of it.

Uses are different ways in which you use or share protected content. This is relevant not only in relation to ProLitteris, but whenever you work with protected material or wish to publish such material.

These are the most frequent uses:

• Reproductions: copies on paper or in digital form, for example by printing, scanning, saving, or copying by hand
• Online publications: making content available on the internet, for example on websites, social media, or platforms
• Presentations and performances: presenting, showing, or playing content, for example in presentations, training sessions, or events
• Broadcasting: disseminating content via radio or television
• Adaptations and transformations into other categories of works: reproduction, translations, film adaptations.

Copyright law is relevant as long as a work is protected. As a rule, protection applies until 70 years after the death of the author. In certain cases, different terms of protection apply.

You have to respect copyright when you use protected content and in doing so interfere with rights.

Two conditions must be met:

• You carry out an act of use, e.g. you copy, put content online or present it.
• You use protected works or performances created by others, such as texts, images, audio or video content.

The following are not considered uses:

• the mere consumption of content
• the adoption of ideas, facts or style
• mere linking on the internet

In the area of schools and businesses, the following also applies: for internal uses, it does not depend on every individual act. Instead, the royalty is based on general uses within an organization, as governed in Common Tariffs 7 and 8.

ProLitteris grants extended collective licenses (ECL) for the internal use of artificial intelligence with services such as Copilot, Gemini, ChatGPT, Claude or Apertus.

As a rights holder, user or licensee, you can obtain information on copyright from ProLitteris at any time.

ProLitteris helps to ensure that fair framework conditions also exist in the field of artificial intelligence.

Pure AI outputs are not works within the meaning of the Copyright Act (URG). However, products that were created with AI are protected by copyright if they constitute a human intellectual creation with an individual character.

This is the case:

• if a prompt is so creative and detailed that it itself has the character of a work,
• and if this individual design is recognizable in the result generated by the AI.

In addition, so-called related rights can arise in an audio (sound carrier) or video (audiovisual carrier).

If you work with AI, it is advisable to document your own creative contribution. This way you can later prove that a protected work exists.

In the view of legal experts and in the assessment of ProLitteris, training AI systems with protected works requires the consent of the rights holders.

The question is the subject of court proceedings abroad. At the same time, statutory solutions are being discussed in order to clearly regulate the use of works for AI systems and to provide appropriate royalties.

In this situation, ProLitteris offers an extended collective license (ECL) so that companies can use internal AI systems in a legally secure way.

You can explicitly state on your website that the training of AI systems is only permitted with your consent. This makes your position clear and documents your rights.

Possible wording includes:

• "Training of AI systems only with specific consent"
• International: "Opt-out for uses with artificial intelligence under the EU directive on text and data mining"

The practical benefit is currently limited, because the legal situation is unclear and AI systems often do not take such statements into account.

AI systems allow protected works to be uploaded to an AI application in order to translate, summarize, or analyze them. 

In the opinion of ProLitteris, this processing requires consent. Such consent exists in the personal sphere and in teaching, because the Copyright Act defines a corresponding freedom of use (Art. 19 para. 1 let. a and b CopA). For companies, there is no such statutory permission—there is only one for reproductions for internal information and documentation.

For you, this means: When you upload texts, images, music, or other protected content to an AI, you use these works under copyright law.

For companies, ProLitteris offers an extended collective license (ECL). Instead of obtaining individual consents from rights holders, the ECL from ProLitteris covers internal systems such as Copilot.