Under German Copyright Law the author is free to decide wether to join a collecting society or not. If he does so he has to accept the consequences of § 11 I Urhberrechtswahrnehmungsgesetz: The collecting society is obliged to grant a license to every user who is willing to pay the license fee. The author himself doesn´t have an obligation to contract. But if he chooses to join a collecting society § 11 I Urheberrechtswahrnehmungsgesetz has an indirect impact on the author´s rights. He loses control over the decision who may use his works and who doesn´t. The work in hand discusses if the obligation to contract in § 11 I Urheberrechtswahrnehmungsgesetz really applies to every single case – like the wording of the rule suggests – or if there is a need to allow exceptions under certain conditions.