German court tells ResearchGate to take down academic papers following copyright lawsuit
A German court has said academic social media website ResearchGate must take down research papers that were uploaded onto its website by academics, after ruling in favour of two academic publishers, who claimed ResearchGate’s activities break copyright laws.
The Munich court said ResearchGate, which has 20 million users worldwide, must take down research papers that had been uploaded by users, after Dutch publisher Elsevier and the American Chemical Society (ACS) filed a lawsuit calling for the papers to be removed.
The court said the Berlin based academic website, which allows researchers from across the globe to upload their own published research, did not have to pay Elsevier and the ACS damages, but ruled the website is responsible for material that infringes copyright.
The ruling opens the door for further copyright lawsuits in the future, and may force ResearchGate to remove research papers that are usually kept behind paywalls, from its website which in certain cases allows users to read the research for free.
The case comes amid longstanding disputes between academic publishers, who claim to own research published in their journals, and websites that allow individual researchers to upload their own papers so that users can read the content for free.
ResearchGate is currently facing a similar lawsuit, again put forward by Elsevier and ACS, in the United States. However, the US case will hinge on whether ResearchGate’s decision to allow content to be uploaded online falls under “fair use” exceptions.