Search results : 1348

Two decisions of the German administrative courts have once again dealt with the issue of acting as an agent for sports bets. In an accelerated decision, the Oberverwaltungsgericht Bremen (Bremen Administrative Court of Appeal - OVG) dismissed the appeal of an operator of a betting business on 11 March 2010. The appeal had been lodged against an order prohibiting the operator of a sports betting business from acting as an agent for sports bets from betting companies in other EU member states. In the court’s opinion, this agency activity conflicts with the state’s administrative monopoly enshrined...

The arbitration board set up at the German Patent and Trade Mark Office under the Gesetz über die Wahrnehmung von Urheberrechten (Law on the Administration of Copyright) issued a settlement proposal on 22 February 2010 in a dispute between a cable network operator and rightsholders concerning fees for cable retransmission. The arbitration board is responsible for dealing with disputes between collecting societies and users of copyright-protected works and for disputes between broadcasters and cable network operators. Its task is to mediate between the parties with the aim of bringing about an amicable...

Germany’s second public service television channel Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF) may no longer broadcast, in the form that was the subject of the action, a remark by the Federal Commissioner for Stasi Documents that Gregor Gysi, the leader of the Die Linke party in the Bundestag, “knowingly and deliberately” reported to the Stasi on a critic of the GDR regime. This was decided on 23 March 2010 by the Hanseatisches Oberlandesgericht Hamburg (Hanseatic Court of Appeal - OLG, which confirmed the judgment of the lower court. On 4 September 2009, the Landgericht Hamburg (Hamburg Regional Court)...

In a judgment of 25 March 2010, the Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Court of Justice - BGH) allowed an appeal concerning a breach of copyright resulting from the use of a video film without authorisation. In the proceedings at the centre of the appeal, the plaintiff had filmed the parachute jump of a well-known German politician in June 2007. The politician was killed, and the film was shown several times by one defendant, the operator of a news channel, on 29 June 2007, and made publicly available by another defendant, the operator of an internet portal. Both publications took place without the plaintiff’s...

On 15 February 2010, the Bundesregierung (Federal Government) introduced in the Bundestag (lower house of parliament) a bill amending the Telemediengesetz (Telemedia Act - TMG) and a second bill amending the Vorläufiges Tabakgesetz (Provisional Tobacco Act). Both bills largely correspond with the bill presented in May 2009 (see IRIS 2009-6: 10) and are designed to transpose Directive 2007/65/EC, particularly its provisions concerning on-demand audiovisual media services and the ban on tobacco advertising. The amendments to the TMG concern its scope (Art. 1(6) of the bill), the broadening of concept...