Search results : 1375

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...

On 29 September 2010, the Hanseatische Oberlandesgericht (Hanseatic regional court of appeal - OLG) decided that the Sevenload video portal did not adopt user-generated content as its own and was not, therefore, liable for copyright infringements committed by users, either as a perpetrator, participant or aider and abettor. The video portal concerned (“the defendant”) offers, on its Internet site, both professionally edited content (e.g., films, shows and music), for which it acquires the necessary licences, and content uploaded by registered users - particularly music videos. The content is found...

In a decision of 27 October 2010, the Bundesverwaltungsgericht (Federal Administrative Court - BVerwG) ruled that broadcasting licence fees should be paid for Internet-capable PCs. The case concerned the obligation of the plaintiffs, two lawyers and a student, to pay the fees as owners of Internet-capable PCs. The three defendants, the broadcasters BR, SWR and WDR, claimed that the plaintiffs should pay the fees because their PCs could be used to watch programmes via a so-called live stream on the Internet. The plaintiffs, who had been asked to pay the fees for their Internet-capable PCs, which...

On 8 October 2010, the Landgericht Hamburg (Hamburg regional court - LG), in a legal dispute over the distribution of two music tracks via an Internet file-sharing network, ordered the defendant to pay two music publishers EUR 15 per track in compensation. The court decided that the defendant had culpably and illegally infringed the music publishers’ copyright (reproduction right and right to make available to the public) by copying the music tracks without permission and uploading them to a file-sharing network. The court’s assessment of the level of compensation due is particularly significant....