Germany

[DE] Act on Protection of Conditional Access Services Adopted

IRIS 2002-3:1/26

Alexander Scheuer

Institute of European Media Law (EMR), Saarbrücken/Brussels

On 1 March, the Bundestag (lower house of parliament) approved the Gesetz über den Schutz von zugangskontrollierten Diensten und von Zugangskontrolldiensten (Act on the protection of restricted access services and conditional access services - ZKDSG), thus transposing Directive 98/84/EC into German law.

The Act aims to protect conditional access services from unauthorised infringements, including technical measures or devices that enable a restricted access service to be used legally. Such services are defined as broadcasting, teleservices and media services provided against remuneration and which can only be accessed using a conditional access service (para. 2). By including the aforementioned types of service, the legislator is providing the necessary protection under civil and criminal law for the corresponding types of television and information society services covered by German law.