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The Bundesrat (upper house of parliament) has issued a statement criticising parts of the Digital Agenda published by the European Commission. The Digital Agenda includes proposals to build a European high-speed network, with the objective of equipping all European households with Internet speeds of at least 30 Mbit/s, and at least half of European households with more than 100 Mbit/s by 2020 (see IRIS 2010-7/4). Although, in principle, the Bundesrat welcomed the Commission’s proposals to develop suitable funding instruments for the broadband sector and reduce investment costs, it criticised the...

The Kommission für Zulassung und Aufsicht (Licensing and Monitoring Commission - ZAK) announced on 24 November 2010 that the TV broadcasters of the ProSiebenSat.1 group and the responsible Landesmedienanstalten (State media authorities - LMA) had settled their dispute over consumer protection in TV competitions and game shows. The disagreements concerned the competition rules adopted by the Landesmedienanstalten in 2009, which include rules on phone-in competitions designed to protect competition participants, such as a ban on misleading the public and certain transparency obligations (see IRIS...

According to reports, the Deutsche Patent- und Markenamt (German Patent and Trade Mark Office - DPMA), in its function as the regulator of collecting societies, published a press release on 10 September 2010, in which it considered the extent to which the rights exercised by the Gesellschaft zur Verwertung der Urheber- und Leistungsschutzrechte von Medienunternehmen (media collecting society - VG Media) covered the use of online video recorders (OVR). In this context, it should be mentioned that the nature of the rights connected with the use of an OVR does not appear to be clearly defined. In...

In a second instance ruling, the Oberlandesgericht Düsseldorf (Düsseldorf regional court of appeal - OLG) has rejected a complaint by the Verband Deutscher Zeitschriftenverleger (association of German magazine publishers - VDZ) against Verwertungsgesellschaft Media (media collecting society - VG Media) concerning the use of programme information. The VDZ had originally asked the Landgericht Köln (Cologne regional court - LG) to issue a negative declaratory judgment, explaining that the magazine publishers it represented were entitled to use the programme information published by the broadcasters...

The Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Supreme Court - BGH) has decided that a tenant who wants to receive HDTV is not, in principle, entitled to install a satellite dish. The defendant in this case was a tenant who had installed a satellite dish on his balcony so that he could receive high definition television (HDTV) programmes, which were not available via the cable network. His landlord objected and demanded that he remove the dish. The appeal court found in the landlord’s favour, but allowed an appeal to the BGH. The BGH ruled that the appeal was inadmissible because the appeal court’s ruling did...