royalty
noun · Lizenzgebühr
Lizenzgebühr for a royalty paid to use a licensed right, but for an author the figure is not the last word, § 32 UrhG gives an unwaivable claim to angemessene Vergütung and § 32a lets the author demand more when the work turns out a success, so a royalty agreed too low can be topped up by law. Gebühr alone is too generic, that is a fee or charge of any kind.
Which translation, when
Why
A royalty is die Lizenzgebühr, the fee paid to use a licensed right, and for straight commercial licensing the word travels well. Where it stops travelling is the author, because German copyright law refuses to let a low figure be final. § 32 UrhG gives the author an unwaivable claim to angemessene Vergütung, a fair fee measured against what is customary and proper, and if the agreed royalty falls short a court adjusts the contract, so a translated royalty clause for an author is a floor set by law, not a ceiling set by agreement. § 32a UrhG, the Fairnessausgleich once nicknamed the Bestsellerparagraph, goes further, if the work becomes a success out of proportion to what the author was paid, the author can demand a further share even years later. Around Lizenzgebühr sit die Tantieme, a success-based share, and for authors die Vergütung, and the machine flat Gebühr, a fee of any sort, loses the licensing sense entirely. So royalty is Lizenzgebühr in commerce, but for an author it drags in a statutory right to be paid fairly that no clause can waive.
Typical mistakes
- For an author a royalty is only a floor, § 32 UrhG gives an unwaivable claim to fair remuneration and § 32a a top-up on disproportionate success, so an agreed royalty translated as final misstates a figure German law can raise.
- Gebühr on its own is a fee or charge of any kind, not the licence sense, so a royalty must be die Lizenzgebühr rather than a bare Gebühr.
- The author’s claim cannot be contracted away, § 32 UrhG, so a royalty clause purporting to settle the matter conclusively promises a finality the UrhG denies.
What matters
Licensing and author agreements diverge on one word: a commercial royalty is die Lizenzgebühr and the figure holds, but an author royalty meets § 32 UrhG, an unwaivable claim to fair remuneration a court can raise, and § 32a for disproportionate success. The clause fixing an author royalty as final has ignored a statutory top-up no contract can waive.
What the machine misses
Royalty comes back as Lizenzgebühr in machine output for licensing, which is right, or flattens to a bare Gebühr, a fee of any kind that loses the licence sense. What no rendering carries is the author floor, § 32 UrhG makes fair remuneration an unwaivable claim and § 32a adds a top-up when a work succeeds beyond what was paid, so a translated royalty clause for an author reads as the final figure when a German court can raise it, and a Bestseller can reopen a fee agreed years before.
Examples
| to pay a royalty | eine Lizenzgebühr zahlen |
| a royalty rate | der Lizenzsatz |
| royalty-free | lizenzgebührenfrei |
| the author’s remuneration | die angemessene Vergütung |