The Copyright Act applies to digital objects in OPARU. In principle, copies may only be made for private and scientific use (§53 UrhG). The rights holder must always be consulted for any subsequent use beyond this, unless the subsequent use is regulated by the license conditions. The license can be found in OPARU on the landing page of the digital object.

All licenses offered in OPARU are open access licenses (free access), but the license models differ in the area of re-use. By choosing a license, you as the author/rights holder determine the extent to which other people may reuse your work.

You can choose from the following licenses for publications in OPARU: Overview of licenses

• License A (formerly Standard) leaves all rights with the creator of the digital object.
• The Creative Commons licenses allow re-use of the object under certain conditions.
• Other licenses: After consultation, a different license can also be granted in individual cases, for example if the publisher only permits secondary publication under a specific license.

When publishing with a publisher, do not assign all publication rights: You should only grant the publisher the exclusive right of use for the print edition, but not for online publication.

Further information on legal issues relating to publications (not just OPARU in particular) can be found on the Publication Management Service website.