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On 3 April 2008, the Bundeskartellamt (Federal Cartel Office - BKartA) gave the green light for the takeover of seven subsidiary companies owned by cable network operator Orion Cable by competitor Kabel Deutschland (KDG). The companies acquired mainly operate broadband cable networks in the Bundesländer of Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland and Bavaria and in the city-states of Hamburg and Bremen. They mainly provide level 4 network coverage, i.e. linking the level 3 distribution network to household connection points. Thanks to this decision,...

On 8 May 2008, the German Bundestag (Parliament) adopted the Government's draft first amendment of the Jugendschutzgesetz (Act on the Protection of Minors), thanks to the votes of the Government parties. The amendment contains three main aspects: firstly, the list of media products harmful to minors, which are indexed under law, is extended where the portrayal of violence is concerned. Whereas previously minors were only banned by law from buying computer games that "glorify" violence or war, in future the same will apply to those in which "realistic, gruesome and sensationalised portrayals of...

On 11 April 2008, the German Bundestag (Parliament) adopted the Gesetz zur Verbesserung der Durchsetzung von Rechten des geistigen Eigentums (Law on Better Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights). The law is designed to implement the so-called EC Enforcement Directive (2004/48/EC) and will enter into force on 1 July 2008. Under Art. 101 of the Urhebergesetz (Copyright Act - UrhG), rightsholders are entitled to information in respect of a third party who was not involved in an infringement in cases where the infringement is obvious and serves a commercial purpose. This right was introduced...

On 14 April 2008, the Landgericht Offenburg (Offenburg District Court) decided that ISPs must disclose to the public prosecutor's office or the police the name and address of the owner of a dynamic IP address in order to establish the identity of a user of a file-sharing network, even without a judicial order. In the LG Offenburg's opinion, this information (name and postal address) is an example of the customer data referred to in Art. 3 no. 3 of the Telekommunikationsgesetz (Telecommunications Act - TKG), the disclosure of which does not require a judicial order. At the same time, it quashed...

After the Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Supreme Court – BGH) ruled on various injunction suits brought by Princess Caroline of Hanover in March last year concerning the relationship between the privacy of famous people and the freedom of the press under Art. 5 para. 1.2 of the Basic Law (case no. VI ZR 51/06 and VI ZR 52/06), the Bundesverfassungsgericht (Federal Constitutional Court – BVerfG) has now also had to deal with this issue following complaints that the Constitution had been infringed. The complainants in these proceedings were Princess Caroline on one side, and two of the press companies...