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In a decision of 20 December 2007 (case no. 11 W 58/07), the Oberlandesgericht (Appeal Court - OLG) of Frankfurt a.M. ruled that the owner of an Internet connection was not necessarily responsible for copyright infringements committed by a family member – in this case, so-called file-sharing infringements. Connection owners should only be held liable if they were under an obligation to monitor the Internet use of family members. Such an obligation only applied if the connection owner had actual grounds for suspecting that the connection might be used to break the law. Such grounds only existed...

In a decision on general principle, the Bundesverfassungsgericht (Federal Constitutional Court - BVerfG ) ruled that the right of reply to ambiguous remarks should not be granted if the breach of personality rights is the result of only one possible and reasonable interpretation of a text. If a text has a hidden message, the right of reply must be limited to content whose meaning is irrefutable for the reader. In 2004, the plaintiff published a magazine article about a private individual who was ordered to pay back millions received in compensation. The person concerned was granted the right to...

The European Commission has officially requested Germany to submit information on national legislation restricting the supply of gambling services, the first step in an infringement procedure under Article 226 of the EC Treaty. The European Commission wishes to investigate the possible infringement of Articles 43, 49 and 56 of the Treaty. The Commission’s inquiry focuses on a number of provisions of the new Glücksspiel-Staatsvertrag (Inter-State Gambling Agreement), which entered into force on 1 January 2008 having been agreed by the Minister-Presidents of the Bundesländer in December 2006. Under...

The Kommission für Jugendmedienschutz (Commission for the protection of minors in the media - KJM ) has, for the second time, found "serious deficiencies" in youth protection filters tested via "jugendschutz.net", a youth protection site set up by the Bundesländer to provide information about youth protection on the Internet. Minimal progress has been made in this area since 2006. None of the systems tested offered adequate protection for children and young people against harmful Internet content; none of the youth protection filters met the legal requirements. Overall, they were not effective...

Following the signature of the 10. Rundfunkänderungs-Staatsvertrag (10th amendment to the Inter-State Broadcasting Agreement - 10. RÄStV) by the Minister-Presidents of the Länder on 19 December 2007, further amendments to the law governing broadcasting and similar telemedia in Germany have been proposed. The new provisions, which still require the approval of the Land parliaments if they are to enter into force as predicted on 1 September 2008, particularly concern the reform of the supervisory structure for private broadcasting and the expansion of platform regulation. With regard to the fixing...