Search results : 1375

In two rulings of 14 March 2012, the Hanseatisches Oberlandesgericht (Hanseatic Appeals Court - OLG) prohibited the file-hosting site Rapidshare from making certain copyrighted content available to its users. The judges therefore upheld the decision of the Landgericht Hamburg (Hamburg District Court - LG), which, in lower-instance judgments, had granted the request of the publishers Campus and De Gruyter and agreed with the legal opinion of the GEMA collecting society concerning Rapidshare’s liability and obligations. Therefore Rapidshare is prohibited from making available the aforementioned publishers’...

On 28 March 2012, the Bundesverwaltungsgericht (Federal Administrative Court - BVerwG) held that a decision issued in 2008 banning two journalists from photographing on-duty police officers was unlawful. Members of a special police task force (SEK) were accompanying a prisoner suspected of involvement in organised crime from his place of detention to a doctor’s surgery when they were spotted and photographed by two journalists. The leader of the police operation ordered the journalists not to take photographs of the officers and threatened to confiscate the camera if they failed to comply. He claimed...

On 22 September 2011, the Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Supreme Court - BGH), in a decision not published until recently, ruled on a dispute over a claim for additional remuneration in accordance with Article 32a of the Urheberrechtsgesetz (Copyright Act - UrhG). In the case concerned, the former chief cameraman of the 1981 film “Das Boot” had demanded an additional share of the revenue generated by the film - which had become a global success - from the producer, a video company and a public service broadcaster. He claimed that the payment he had received at the time was clearly disproportionate...

On 23 March 2012, the German government introduced a draft amendment to the Gesetz gegen Wettbewerbsbeschränkungen (Restraints on Competition Act - GWB), concerning, inter alia, the regulations on controlling press mergers. In Germany, the regulations on stakeholdings and ownership are to be found at various levels. The GWB, which falls within the competence of the Federal Government, contains general, cross-sectoral rules of antitrust legislation, and the purpose of the draft submitted is to adapt these rules to the developments of EU merger control law. In order to maintain media diversity, the...

On 9 February 2012, the Kommission für Jugendmedienschutz der Landesmedienanstalten (Land Media Authorities’ Commission for the Protection of Minors in the Media - KJM) recognised two World Wide Web youth protection programs, subject to certain conditions. These are the first youth protection programs for internet services that the KJM has recognised in accordance with the criteria that it published in May 2011 (see IRIS 2011-7/17). Both programs therefore meet the requirement of user independence; they provide users with age-appropriate access to online services and can be switched on and off,...