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From 7 June 2021, the licensing of out-of-commerce works will no longer be possible in its present form. The application process of the licensing service for out-of-commerce works (VW-LiS) will therefore be temporarily suspended.

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Since 2014, the German Collecting Societies Act (VGG) and the act that preceded it have opened up opportunities for digitising and granting free access to out-of-commerce printed works published during the 20th century.

In this context, the German National Library has established the licensing service for out-of-commerce works (VW-LiS) in order to make it easier for cultural heritage institutions to identify and to apply for user licences for printed works that are out-of-commerce.

VW-LiS consolidates the licensing processes for out-of-commerce printed works and offers you a simple way to facilitate the legally compliant provision of such works. This service is provided in cooperation with the collecting society Wort (VG Wort; only available in German) which issues the licences for out-of-commerce printed works, and the German Patent and Trade Mark Offic (DPMA), which provides the public register (only available in German) of out-of-commerce printed works.

In recent years, VW-LiS has become an integral part of the digitisation projects, specialist-information services and customer services at many libraries.

If you have any questions regarding the licensing of out-of-commerce works or the VW-LiS service, please contact vergriffene.werke@dnb.de.

My VW-LiS Account

As a registered cultural heritage institution, you can continue to access your VW-LiS user account in order to manage your licence applications.

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