In Web 2.0, the boundary between private and public spheres blurs. This raises the question of the extent to which the concept of publicness established in § 15 para. 3 sentence 2 of the German Copyright Act is still valid. Gregor Völtz examines Web 2.0 from technical, cultural, and economic perspectives and subjects the specific usage actions that occur here to a copyright analysis under German and US law. The author proposes to limit the act of public reproduction to exploitation-type actions and to subject non-exploitation-type reproduction actions to a statutory license. This would adapt copyright law to the requirements of Web 2.0 and address its ongoing loss of acceptance in the online world.