Search results : 1375

On 28 March 2012, the Kammergericht Berlin (Berlin Supreme Court - KG), in a recently published judgment, confirmed the lower-instance decision of the Landgericht Berlin (Berlin District Court - LG) of 20 May 2011 and ruled that film footage showing the removal of a GDR citizen shot dead at the Berlin Wall was not protected by copyright. The plaintiffs had claimed copyright over the footage and demanded that the defendant be prohibited from reproducing it, making it publicly accessible or broadcasting it on television. The KG Berlin ruled out such a claim under the Urheberrechtsgesetz (Copyright...

On 23 May 2012, the Bundesverwaltungsgericht (Federal Administrative Court - BVerwG), in a judgment that has not yet been published in full, ruled that the Bundesländer may, in their media legislation, empower the Landesmedienanstalten (Land media authorities - LMA) to confiscate advertising income received by private TV broadcasters in connection with programmes judged to be illegal. The case concerned clips shown in the “Bimmel-Bingo” section of the programme “TV total” broadcast by the TV company ProSieben, in which a camera crew had rung the doorbells of single-family houses unannounced at...

At its meeting on 24 April 2012, the Kommission für Zulassung und Aufsicht (Licensing and Monitoring Commission - ZAK) decided that the broadcast of advertising for sports betting provider bwin by pay-TV broadcaster Sky breached current law. It banned further broadcasts of all forms of television advertising for bwin and ordered the immediate execution of this measure. Sky had broadcast numerous sponsor references and split-screen advertisements for bwin during the programme “Live Fußball: Bundesliga/Samstags-Konferenz” on 28 January 2012. The Commission deemed that this breached the ban on television...

On 20 April 2012, the Landgericht Hamburg (Hamburg District Court - LG) ruled, in the dispute between the Gesellschaft für musikalische Aufführungs- und mechanische Vervielfältigungsrechte (society for musical performing and mechanical reproduction rights - GEMA) and the video portal operator YouTube, that YouTube was liable, although only in cases in which it “knowingly breached certain rules of conduct and control obligations”. YouTube was under no general obligation to check all content uploaded onto its portal for copyright infringements, to block such content or to take measures to prevent...

According to media reports, on 25 April 2012 several subsidiaries of the television broadcaster Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF), various stations of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft der öffentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunkanstalten der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Union of German Public Service Broadcasters - ARD) and a number of television production companies set up the limited company Germany’s Gold GmbH. The corporate objective is the joint establishment and operation of a video-on-demand (VoD) platform, through which digitised content from the past 60 years of German and international film and television...