The general counsel of Random House Germany, Rainer Dresen, was sued by the estate of the Goebbels family for publishing a biography that includes excessive quotes from Joseph Goebbels himself. The idea is that these statements and ideas’ copyright owners are the Goebbels family and that they are demanding revenue from Random House Germany. These demands, while legally legitimate, are morally questionable. According to copyright laws, the family has the right to make such demands, but the ethics of the situation are not as clear cut since the topic is extremely sensitive on its own already without considering the fact that the quotes are historical statements or matter of facts. As a result, this is an interesting case to explore the ethics of what copyright law is and how it attempts to protect work.
The copyright law allows for copyrighted materials to be used as long as it is categorized as fair use (commentary/criticism or parody). In the case of the Goebbels family, they believed that the excessive quotes from Joseph do not fall under fair use. By copyright law, they are in the right for restricting the quotes. The family feels that they can profit off the statements of their ancestor for the sake of his siblings’ descendants. It is a completely fair dispute except for the specific situation here which is in a moral grey area. The Holocaust remains to be one of the most inhuman and infamous events in history, and it is a time that is very sensitive. The family here is sending profit to what some would say is a war criminal. Moreover, people who were harmed in these awful times in history should be considered more than how strictly copyright is implemented. Being the situation that it is, there is no doubt about its historical significance and relevance to the world. That is one of the reasons that these quotes should not be treated like any other copyrighted work. The family ends up profiting off the copyright law.
Another topic to consider here is why historical quotes are copyrighted and could easily be profited off of. The copyright law is there to ensure that creative work does not get abused by somebody that is not the creator or owner. A quote, when cited properly, by such a historically significant person in a very historically time should not have such copyrights because it allows potential war criminals to profit off statements. The writer and publisher never claimed for a second that the quotes belong to them. Quotes by historical figures should be treated as a public domain since they are simply thoughts rather than ideas to be copyrighted. It is a very horrifying thing to consider since going along with this also implies that families like Goebbels’ could easily manipulate history. If a historian considers a Goebbels quote and criticizes it, there is a potential to be held liable in court because of how easily the copyright law is abused because this is exactly what happened. The estate won the case. This points to another critical issue with copyright law. It claims to be there to ensure the safety of people’s creations, but the main factor fueling it is profit or market. The ways copyright law are implemented are business oriented. The system that was created for the everyday man ends up benefitting the publishers and big companies and, now, war criminals.
Random House should be able to quote and cite Goebbel’s due to the background’s historical significance and tragedy and the copyright law should be adjusted to not allow these extreme cases. Moreover, the copyright law should lean more towards the sensitivity of events and ideas rather than the purely business. It almost neglects the most important aspect to why people want their work copyrighted in the first place: simply humanity. The Goebbels’ family is legally correct to try to demand money for the quotes. However, the ethics of the situation and rigidity of copyright law changes things drastically.
References:
Alberge, D. (2015, July 09). Joseph Goebbels’ family win legal battle to be paid royalties for diary extracts. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/09/joseph-goebbels-family-royalties-diaries-nazi-propaganda-minister
Alberge, D. (2015, April 17). Random House told it should pay to quote Joseph Goebbels in biography. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/apr/18/random-house-told-it-should-pay-to-quote-joseph-goebbels-in-biography
Mclaren, C. (2011). Copyrights and Copywrongs. Cutting Across Media,38–50. doi:10.1215/9780822393214–003
