Bavaria loses its case against a volunteer who republished public geodata

In 2021, Drenger found geodata published online by a federal aviation authority and mirrored it on GitHub. Bavaria demanded its removal, asserted database rights, and pursued legal action even after he took it down.

Netzpolitik reports that Munich’s Higher Regional Court dismissed the claim as inadmissible on July 30. One reason was procedural: Bavaria changed its account of who created the database, moving from a claim of its own authorship to joint creation with Deutsche Post. The court also found the Data Use Act applicable.

This is a meaningful victory for Drenger, but it does not settle every licensing question around public data. Partnerships with private companies and the continuing sale of government datasets leave important disputes open.

Drenger’s concern is the deterrent effect. A volunteer may eventually win and still spend years defending a useful public project. Putting a dataset on a government website is only part of making it safely reusable.