Conference 2026

8:30 a.m.

Admission

Start with tea and coffee

Greetings

9:30 a.m.

Greeting

Matthias Hornschuh, Composer, Spokesperson for the Authors' Rights Initiative
and Katharina Uppenbrink, Managing director Authors' Rights Initiative

Greeting

Anh-Linh Ngo, Vice President of the Academy of Arts

Greeting/Statement

Dr. Konrad Schmidt-Werthern, Secretary General of the Federal Ministry for Culture and the Media

Greetings / Statement

Parliamentary State Secretary Johannes Steiniger (BMWE)

Statement

Mareen Fischinger, Professional Association of Freelance Photographers and Film Creators (BFF)

Europe

10:10 a.m.

First Assessments on the Opinion of the Advocate General at the Court Maciej Szpunar in Case C-250/25

Prof. Dr. Karl Riesenhuber, Inhaber des Lehrstuhls für Bürgerliches Recht, Deutsches und Europäisches Handels- und Wirtschaftsrecht an der Ruhr-Universität Bochum
Prof. Dr. Thomas Höppner, Partner at Geradin Partners

Moderation: Sabine Richly**, Digital Media Law

10:25 a.m.

Keynote

Kai Zenner, Head of Office and Digital Policy Adviser for MEP Axel Voss (EPP group) in the European Parliament / Member of the OECD.AI Expert Network

10:40 a.m.

Keynote

Felix Kartte, expert on digital and European policy

10:55 a.m.

Video Statement

Prof. Dr. Peter Kirchschläger, Director of the Institut für Sozialethik at the University of Lucerne (Switzerland) and Consultor to the Dicastery

Questions

11:10 a.m.

Break

Political Assessment from Germany

11:40 a.m.

Statement

Federal Minister of Justice and Consumer Protection Dr. Stefanie Hubig

Statement

Carsten Brosda, Senator of the Hamburg Ministry of Culture and Media

12:00 p.m.

Panel Bundestag

Martin Rabanus, Member of the Bundestag, Speaker (SPD) of the Committee on Culture and Media
Awet Tesfaiesus, Member of the Bundestag, Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, Member of the Committee on Culture and Media / Committee on Law and Consumer Protection

Questions

Expert presentations

12:30 p.m.

Presentation

Prof. Dr. Malte Stieper, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg

12:45 p.m.

Presentation

Chan-jo Jun, attorney and specialist in IT law, member of the Bavarian Constitutional Court

1:00 p.m.

Presentation

Hanna Lukashevich, Hanna Lukashevich, Head of the Semantic Media Technologies research group, Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology IDMT, Ilmenau

1:15 p.m.

Presentation

Dr. Eva Flecken, Director of the Berlin-Brandenburg Media Authority (mabb)

1:45 p.m.

Lunch Break

International Perspectives

2:15 p.m.

Introduction to the Afternoon Session

Matthias Hornschuh, Spokesperson for the Authors' Rights Initiative
Katharina Uppenbrink, Executive Director of the Authors' Rights Initiative

2:25 p.m.

Video Statement

Prof. Marketa Trimble, Samuel S. Lionel Professor of Intellectual Property Law, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

2:40 p.m.

Presentation

Izv. Professor Dr. von Lewinski, Max Planck Institute

Positions of the Ministries

3:00 p.m.

Martin Bittner (BMJV), Head of the Division for Copyright and Publishing Law
Evelyn Grass (BMDS), Head of Division DWII2 – Artificial Intelligence
Caroline von Klitzing (BKM), Head of Division KM 64: Copyright; Legal Aspects of AI

Questions

Pending Lawsuits

3:30 p.m.

Video Statement

Marc-Uwe Kling, author and founder of Save Social, plaintiff in the lawsuit against OpenAI

Panel Lawsuits

Dr. Rainer Dresen, General Counsel at Penguin Random House
Sabine Richly, Digital Media Law

Questions

4:00 p.m.

Break

Recommendations and Conclusions

4:20 p.m.

Panel of Authors and Artists

Christopher Annen, AnnenMayKantereit and PRO MUSIK
Dr. Tilo Gerlach, Managing Director of GVL, Board Member of Aepo-Artis, Brussels
Melina Natale, Board Member of the German Screenwriter's Association (DDV)
Dr. Anke Schierholz, General Counsel of VG Bild-Kunst, IFRRO
Tobias Wüstefeld, Illustrator

5:00 p.m.

Perspectives

Sabine Richly, Digital Media Law
Dr. Carolina Forgit-Knerr, Social and Cultural Anthropologist

5:10 p.m.

Summary and Acknowledgments

Matthias Hornschuh and Katharina Uppenbrink, Authors' Rights Initiative

5:15 p.m.

End of the event

Subject to change!

The program is updated on an ongoing basis.