Search results : 1399

In a ruling of 21 December 2010, the Verwaltungsgericht Neustadt (Neustadt administrative court - VG) decided that RLP.TV GbR was not entitled to a broadcasting licence. In May 2009, the Landeszentrale für Medien und Kommunikation (regional media and communications authority - LMK) of Rhineland-Palatinate had invited tenders from analogue cable TV channels wishing to provide regional television channels. In November 2009, it awarded Gutenberg.TV the licence to broadcast a TV channel with a regional and local focus in Vorder- and Westpfalz and in Rheinhessen. It rejected the bid by competitor RLP.TV...

In a recently published decision of 27 December 2010, the Oberlandesgericht Köln (Cologne regional court of appeal - OLG) considered the concept of “commercial scale” of file-sharing in relation to the right to information enshrined in Article 101 of the Urheberrechtsgesetz (Copyright Act - UrhG) (see IRIS 2011-1/17). Taking previous case-law into account, the OLG Köln repeated that, on the one hand, a commercial scale was present if the work being offered was particularly valuable, before looking more closely at a second scenario, whereby a sufficiently large file was made available to the public...

In a ruling of 18 January 2011, the Verwaltungsgericht Berlin (Berlin Administrative Court - VG) rejected a claim by the Filmförderungsanstalt (Film Support Office - FFA) to payment of the film tax. The case concerned DVDs produced and sold by the video marketing company of the Berlin-Brandenburg public service broadcaster (RBB), each containing several episodes of various television series produced by the broadcaster. The FFA wanted the video marketing company to pay a film tax on these DVDs on the basis of Article 66a of the Filmförderungsgesetz (Film Support Act - FFG). Under this provision,...

On 10 December 2010, the Bundesverfassungsgericht (Federal Constitutional Court - BVerfG) decided to uphold the appeal by the Hamburg-based local broadcaster “Freies Sender Kombinat” (FSK) against an order to search its business premises and confiscate its editorial documents, and to overturn the lower instance rulings. In October 2003, FSK had broadcast a report on alleged infringements by police officers at a demonstration. During the programme, an unknown presenter had played recordings of two telephone calls between a police press officer and somebody who had introduced him/herself in the telephone...

On 16 December 2010, the Bundestag (lower house of parliament) adopted two bills ratifying and implementing the Additional Protocol of 2003 to the Council of Europe’s Convention on Cybercrime (see IRIS 2001-10/3) and taking into account Framework Decision 2008/913/JHA of the Council of the European Union of 28 November 2008 (see IRIS 2009-2/5). The Additional Protocol to the Convention on Cybercrime generally criminalises the dissemination of racist and xenophobic material via computer and distribution systems such as the Internet. This includes “any written material, any image or any other representation...