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The Federal Government has published a press release, announcing that it has adopted a draft amendment to the Filmförderungsgesetz (Film Support Act - FFG). The proposal to revise the FFG followed concerns raised by the Bundesverwaltungsgericht (Federal Administrative Court - BVerwG) concerning the conformity of the current rules on contributions with Art. 3.1 of the Grundgesetz (Basic Law - GG). It was claimed that, under the current provisions of Arts. 66 and 67 FFG, cinema operators and the video industry on the one hand, and television companies and pay-TV providers on the other, were treated...

In a ruling of 17 December 2009, the Oberverwaltungsgericht Münster (Münster Higher Administrative Court - OVG) decided that the system of fees charged by the Landesarchiv (State archive - LA) of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) for the presentation of archive material in television programmes is illegal in its current form. The plaintiff in this case had asked the LA for permission to inspect certain archive material and a licence to film individual items in connection with the production of a historical documentary film. The LA granted the permission requested and, after the film had been completed,...

According to media reports, the Amtsgericht Zeven (Zeven district court - AG) has issued a penalty order against the user of another person's unencrypted WLAN. In the court's view, the unauthorised use of the WLAN constitutes the offence of unauthorised tapping under Art. 148 in connection with Art. 89 of the Telekommunikationsgesetz (Telecommunications Act - TKG). Furthermore, the woman, by making contact with her former partner and his new girlfriend via the social network "StudiVZ", was found guilty of stalking under Art. 238 of the Strafgesetzbuch (Criminal Code - StGB) and of false accusation...

On 23 December 2009, the Oberlandesgericht München (Munich Appeal Court - OLG) upheld the company Danone's claim to information about the kick-back payments received by the media agency Aegis Media during the period of a contract between the two companies (case no. 7 U 3044/09). The plaintiff had been using Aegis Media as its media agency for many years. As such, Aegis Media essentially managed the company's TV advertising budget and bought advertising slots from broadcasters. Under the contract between the two parties, all economic benefits that were neither part of the advertising fee nor the...

On 28 January 2010, the Bundesverwaltungsgericht (Federal Administrative Court - BVerwG) decided that Deutsche Telekom AG is not obliged to provide its competitors with access to its optical fibres between cable distributors and main distribution frames (MDFs). In the proceedings, Deutsche Telekom had appealed against a regulatory order issued by the Bundesnetzagentur (Federal Network Agency - BNetzA) on 27 June 2007. The order obliged the former monopolist to grant its competitors access not only (as before) to the 8,000 or so MDFs, but also to the cable ducts between the MDFs and the 300,000...