Exceptions to exploitation rights (free use of works)

This free use of works enables the general public to use copyrighted works for private and personal use. Users must observe the following requirements when using the work:

• Reproductions may only be used privately and not made publicly accessible;
• Reproductions may under no circumstances serve commercial interests. Users may not earn money or otherwise benefit commercially;
• Reproduction is permitted on all media (e.g. photocopying, photography, saving on a storage medium, recording on tape);
• If the protected material originates from an obviously illegal source, even use for private and personal use is not permitted (e.g. private viewing of pirated copies);
• The Copyright Act does not set a limit on how many copies private users may make, but only a few are permitted depending on the purpose.

Example: You buy a music album legally on the internet (e.g. through your mobile phone provider's shop). You save the album on your smartphone or tablet so that you can listen to it on different devices. This is a type of reproduction. As it is only for your private and personal use, it is a permitted free use of the work. 

Info: If the reproduction is made for research purposes or for media monitoring, the exemption is somewhat broader. 

Reproduction for personal use is excluded if users wish to use sheet music, entire books, or magazines. The reproduction of entire buildings is not permitted either.

Example: You are a famous architect and have created a special design for an innovative building. People who want to build their own home are not allowed to copy these copyrighted plans and recreate your work without your permission.

Under certain conditions, users may reproduce copyright-protected works for the use of other people rather than for their own use. This is referred to as third-party use. This is only permitted if 

• the use is free of charge—i.e. the users do not charge the third parties a fee;
• users do not reproduce works in advance, but only at the request of the third party. 

Example: You are studying art history and are writing your master's thesis on a famous photographer. You don't have time to go to the library and look at her catalogue yourself. You ask a friend to go to the library and photograph the photo catalogue and send it to you.

Example: You are an artist and want to go to an exhibition by a media artist for some inspiration. Unfortunately, you can't go, so you ask a colleague to go for you and send you a video of the exhibition. 

Paid reproduction for other people is permitted in three special cases:

• When you copy musical works or works of literature for someone else. This includes handwritten copying, transcribing, typing on a typewriter, and typing using a word processor. Please note: the copying of entire works and of sheet music is still not permitted;
• Classic photocopying (e.g. you ask an employee of a copy shop to make a copy of a copyrighted book for you);
• For the purpose of media monitoring. In other words, for collecting, archiving, analysing, studying, etc. copyrighted works that have been published in the context of reporting on current events. 

Attention: Free use of works covers the reproduction, not the publication, of works. This means that users may not upload your copyright-protected works to social networks unless you have given your consent. 

When media outlets, such as newspapers or television stations, report on current events, copyright-protected works may become recognisable in their reports. The protected material contained in such reports may be reproduced in this way, made publicly available, and broadcast on radio or television.

This free use of a work applies under the following conditions:

• The term "current event" must be interpreted narrowly. This means that a very recent event must be reported on. Reporting must take place on the same day or shortly after the event. Preliminary reports are not covered by the free use of works.
• The protected work itself must not be the subject of the report. Rather, this work inevitably becomes recognisable in the course of reporting. 

Example: A TV news team is interviewing people at a folk festival. Copyright-protected music is being played on the stage and can be heard in the background. Because the music can be heard as part of a report on a current event, the TV broadcaster does not need to obtain permission from the author. 

Example: A daily newspaper reports on an exhibition opening. The newspaper article includes a photo showing the exhibition rooms and the paintings hung in them. The daily newspaper does not have to obtain permission from the authors of these paintings.

Example: A TV station is filming a report about a music group’s performance and includes concert recordings in its report. The subject of the report is the protected material itself. The TV station must obtain authorisation from the music group.

Other people may reproduce and distribute previously published copyrighted material for the purpose of quotation, provided that the extent of use is justified by a specific purpose. This exception is intended to ensure freedom of expression and the guarantee of cultural and scientific progress. 

This means that other people may reproduce and distribute your work because they are studying its content and the citation of your work is necessary to achieve better understanding. The conditions for this free use of your work are therefore as follows:

• The citation of your work must be necessary for understanding. The citation must therefore have a supporting function;
• Your work is correctly reproduced and not misquoted;
• You are named as the author (source reference);
• The citation of your work must be justified by a special purpose, for example because the citation is carried out in the context of reporting, for scientific or educational purposes, or in the context of a caricature, parody, or pastiche;
• Your work may only be quoted to the extent necessary. Merely "embellishing" articles or scientific papers just to "attract" more interested parties is not covered by the free use of works.

Example: A newspaper article quotes and critically discusses a few lines from your new novel.

Example: You are writing your master's thesis on a contemporary artist. To this end, you are interpreting her artwork and would like to include photos of her art in your thesis. As the images play an explanatory and supporting role, this is a permissible image citation. 

Example: Excerpts from your new film are shown and analysed as part of a film review in a TV programme. 

Example: Your painting has been cleaned and restored by a conservator. The conservator takes photos of your painting with a high-resolution camera in order to publish them in a scientific article and present them as part of a scientific lecture. 

The right of quotation applies to all categories of work, although there are detailed regulations for certain ones. See Section 42f of the Copyright Act. 

Attention: If people cite your works for academic purposes, they may cite an entire work and do not have to limit themselves to reproducing only excerpts if this is necessary. 

If others quote your work for the purpose of a caricature, parody, or pastiche, they may even broadcast it using a large online platform (e.g. YouTube) and make it available to the public without needing your permission (Section 18c Copyright Act ).

At schools, universities, and other educational institutions, the public reproduction of film works and the provision of digital content is permitted.

Example: A teacher plays a copyrighted film about the painter Pablo Picasso to her students. She also uploads a scan of a copyrighted book about his work and life to the school's digital platform (e.g. Moodle). In addition, she uploads photos that she took of his paintings at an exhibition. The students are to use this material to do their coursework. 

Businesses that sell image and sound carriers may publicly reproduce copyrighted material at the request of their customers.

Example: A shop sells televisions. A customer would like to know what the television’s resolution is like. The salesperson can play a film for this purpose. 

Example: A record shop sells vinyl records and CDs. Potential customers are allowed to listen to the music and then decide whether they want to buy it. However, be aware that without the permission of the musicians, the record shop may not generally play copyrighted music using loudspeakers in the shop. Permission must be obtained, and royalties must be paid. 

Accommodation establishments, such as hotels and guesthouses, may show films to their guests, provided that the film was released in Austria, or at least in German, a minimum of two years ago.

Libraries may offer copyrighted material on image or sound carriers to the public on site.

The prerequisite for this is that no more than two users may view the material at the same time.

Example: A library in Vienna provides two computers with headphones. Library users can use these computers to access to a catalogue of copyrighted material such as interviews, documentaries, films, and podcasts, which they can watch and/or listen to there and then.

Works may be used without the author's consent if they occur only incidentally or in passing and without relation to the actual purpose of use. 

Example: You are a photographer and take a portrait of a person. This person happens to be wearing a T-shirt with a copyrighted design. You upload the photo to your online blog and present it at an exhibition. The fashion designer cannot prohibit you from distributing the photo—and thus their design on the T-shirt—because it only appears incidentally and by chance in your work.

Example: You are shooting a film and in one scene, a copyrighted painting can be briefly seen hanging in the background. The film makes no reference to it. You do not need to obtain permission from the painting’s artist in order to present your film at a film festival.

The following utilisations of insignificant incidental works are permitted: reproduction, distribution, broadcasting, public communication, and public recitation, performance, or presentation.

Officially recognised organisations provide services for people with visual and reading disabilities in Austria. For charitable purposes, these organisations produce reading or training material for people with visual or reading disabilities. 

You may reproduce literary works for people with visual or reading disabilities in an accessible manner without the author's permission. 

Example: One example is the presentation of literary works in Braille. 

Authorities and courts may use copyrighted material for official purposes. 

Example: Someone has damaged works of art protected by copyright at a museum. The police take photos of the artworks, print them out, and place them in the file. 

Certain cultural institutions are authorised to reproduce or have reproduced all works that are permanently in their collections for the purpose of their preservation. The reason for this is that cultural heritage protected by copyright is to be preserved in the public interest. 

The following cultural institutions are covered by this regulation: publicly accessible libraries and museums, archives, institutions dealing with cultural heritage in the field of film and sound, and media archives. The latter create collections of audiovisual media for non-commercial purposes. 

People working for research or cultural institutions may reproduce works protected by copyright for scientific or artistic research. For this purpose, they may digitise and automatically analyse texts and data in order to identify patterns, trends, and correlations.

Public institutions that collect works—including museums and archives, for example—may reproduce works whose authors or rights holders are not known (orphan works) and make them accessible to the public under certain conditions. 

Cultural institutions may reproduce, broadcast, or make available on a non-commercial website any unavailable works from their collection if these rights are not managed by a collecting society and certain conditions are met (Section 56f UrhG). 

For more information on collecting societies, see the subchapter on collecting societies.

In addition to the aspects of free use of works already presented, there are others which only apply within a specific artistic genre. These are presented below.

Music

In the context of certain events, works of art that have already been published may be performed in public without the need for authorisation (freedom of performance):

• ecclesiastical, military, or civic (particularly dignified) occasions;
• if the audience does not pay an entrance fee to attend an event (not even a voluntary donation) and the event is not for profit. For this reason, none of the participants may receive remuneration, not even in the case of charity events.

Fine arts

Owners of art collections may print images of the original works in full in a catalogue, provided this is necessary to encourage visitors (freedom to reproduce illustrations in visitor catalogues). This includes museum catalogues, for example. 

The same applies to catalogues for the auctioning or sale of works of art (freedom to reproduce illustrations in auction and sales catalogues). 

Another exception relates to the reproduction of portraits. If it is a commissioned work, it may be reproduced by third parties even for paid purposes.

Computer programmes

Software is also protected by copyright as a work of literature. However, the provisions on reproduction for private use are not applicable here. When computer programmes are used, they are automatically reproduced on a permanent basis. For this reason, there are separate regulations for these. 

Users may reproduce, edit and correct errors in computer programmes if they have acquired them legally and use them as intended.