General Terms and Conditions of Use for DB Mediathek (Last modified in December 2024 )

Deutsche Bahn AG, of Potsdamer Platz 2, 10785 Berlin, Germany, (DB) operates Deutsche Bahn's Mediathek media portal at http://mediathek.deutschebahn.com.

Use of the media portal and the image material made available in it is subject to the principles laid out in the General Terms and Conditions of Use below. Where the user's own conditions contradict, supplement or diverge from these conditions, they shall only form part of this usage agreement where DB expressly recognises this in writing. The conditions written here shall apply even if the usage agreement is performed without reservation in the knowledge of conflicting or supplementary conditions, or conditions which diverge from these DB conditions.

I. Subject of contract and rights of use of image material

1. Subject of contract

DB provides digital media material free of charge via the media portal for use within the scope of these General Terms and Conditions of Use. 

2. Right of use

Unless otherwise agreed, DB shall grant employees a non-exclusive right to use the media material provided in the context of the DB Group's internal and external communication measures, and shall grant external editorial offices, agencies and companies the same non-exclusive right of use for the purpose of journalistic and editorial reporting only.
Any other use of the media material by external parties, in particular for commercial or marketing purposes, requires a special agreement with DB. Private use of content provided in the media portal is not permitted.
In the case of media material in which objects are portrayed that are protected by copyrights, design rights and/or trademarks belonging to DB, the right of use includes the use of these protective rights.

3. Duration of right of use

The right of use shall be valid for one single use. If the media material is not used within two months after receipt, the right of use shall expire. Continued archiving is not permitted.

4. Media processing

Editing the media material or making changes to it (such as distorting colours, creating photo montages or altering CI elements) shall not be permitted. Format adjustments and colour corrections shall be permitted insofar as they do not change the message or content.

5. Cessation of infringement and damages

Once the rights of use granted have expired, any further use of the media material may result in the owner of the rights of use being entitled to cessation of infringement and to damages.

6. Disclosure to third parties

The assignment or sub-licensing of the granted right of use to third parties, whether full or partial, is not permitted. This shall not apply to the passing of material to external editorial offices (review and selection of the media).

II. Use of the Mediathek media portal

1. Log-in

The user accessing the media portal shall in principle not be required to log in. A user who registers shall have access to a more extensive media collection.
There shall be no right to registration. DB shall be entitled to revoke the authorisation for access at any time by blocking the access data without needing to cite a reason.

2. Availability

Despite all precautions taken by DB, the occurrence of outages cannot be ruled out. DB shall assume no liability for interruptions or any other disruptions to the website. No user shall derive any compensation from such occurrences. Moreover, DB reserves the right to change or discontinue the media portal at any time.

3. Content

The utmost care has been taken in the creation of the media portal. Nevertheless, DB assumes no liability for the correctness, completeness or currentness of the content it publishes, particularly not for the correctness of the titles given to the media material.

4. Liability

DB's liability for damage to property or economic loss shall be limited to intention and gross negligence.

content it publishes, particularly not for the correctness of the titles given to the media material.

5. Personal data

Personal data is collected, processed and stored in an automated manner solely to facilitate realisation of this usage agreement for the media portal. For all other purposes, the privacy principles and regulations shall apply.

6. Miscellaneous

This agreement shall be governed by German law, excluding the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. The place of jurisdiction is Berlin.
Where a provision of these Terms and Conditions is or becomes invalid, the validity of the remaining provisions shall not be affected.
DB shall be entitled to transfer its rights and duties to other companies within the DB Group. The provisions on the rights of use described in Section II and the statutory provisions on the transfer of claims shall remain unaffected.
The user shall be prohibited from assigning any claims against DB to third parties. Section 354 a) of the German Commercial Code (HGB) shall remain unaffected.
The user can only set off claims (including claims from other legal relationships) that are undisputed or have been established by a final court judgement. DB shall be entitled to full rights of set-off and retention.