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On 4 April 2010, the Bundesministerium der Justiz (Federal Ministry of Justice - BMJ) presented a draft law strengthening the freedom of the press. The bill aims to improve the protection of journalists and their sources in order to ensure that they can fulfil their oversight function vis-à-vis State activities. This is to be achieved by amending Art. 353b of the Strafgesetzbuch (Criminal Code - StGB), which provides for imprisonment of up to five years for breaches of official secrecy and special obligations of secrecy by public officials. An additional paragraph will be added to the article,...

In a decision of 8 April 2010, the Bundesverwaltungsgericht (Federal Administrative Court - BVerwG) rejected an urgent application by a network operator against the auction of 2.6 GHz frequencies. The applicant (broadband provider Airdata) used some of the frequencies concerned under a fixed-term licence. Since that licence had now expired, it requested an extension, which would block the auction. The BVerwG rejected the urgent application after weighing up the various interests. As a result of its decision, the auction of frequencies (360 MHz in total) could begin, as planned, on 12 April 2010....

In a ruling of 29 April 2010, the Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Supreme Court - BGH) decided that Google's image search engine does not infringe copyright law. Google's image search engine enables users to search for images posted online by third parties by typing in a search item. In the subsequent search result list, the images are shown in thumbnail form. In the case at hand, the plaintiff, an artist who runs her own website containing images of her works of art, had asked the court to prevent Google from showing such images of her work in thumbnail form. The BGH rejected her request. It recognised...

In a decision of 12 November 2009, which has only recently been published, the Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Supreme Court - BGH) ruled on the scope and conditions of the cable retransmission right enshrined in Art. 87(1)(1), case 1, and Art. 20 of the Urheberrechtsgesetz (Copyright Act - UrhG). In 2003, the plaintiff, Gesellschaft zur Verwertung der Urheber- und Leistungsschutzrechte von Medienunternehmen (copyright and performance rights collecting society for media companies - VG Media), signed a contract with cable network operator ish NRW for compensation for cable network operators' use, via...

On 12 March 2010, the Gesellschaft für musikalische Aufführungs- und mechanische Vervielfältigungsrechte (GEMA), the German collecting society for authors and music publishers, decided to adopt a new version of its membership agreement relating to the use of musical works for advertising purposes. When music is used for advertising purposes, rights management is to be exercised separately by the member and GEMA. According to the amended version of section 1(k)(1) of the membership agreement the “right to allow third parties to use a musical work [...] for advertising purposes in an individual case...