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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...

At its meeting on 19 February 2008, the Kommission für Jugendmedienschutz der Landesmedienanstalten (Commission for Protection of Youth in the Media - KJM) demanded that a fine of EUR 100,000 be imposed upon RTL's TV programme "Deutschland sucht den Superstar" ("DSDS") because of repeated infringements of youth protection rules in accordance with Art. 16 no. 8 in connection with Art. 24 para. 3 of the Jugendmedienschutz-Staatsvertrags (Inter-State Agreement on Protection of Youth in the Media - JMStV; see IRIS 2002-9: 15) in connection with Articles 35 ff. of the Gesetz über Ordnungswidrigkeiten...

The Minister-Presidents of the Länder agreed to increase broadcasting licence fees for the 2009-2012 period in early March 2008 (see IRIS 2008-2: 10). Based on the proposal of the Kommission zur Ermittlung des Finanzbedarfs der Rundfunkanstalten (Committee for the establishment of broadcasters' financial needs - KEF) and consultations with the Landesmedienanstalten (Land media authorities), the TV licence fee will rise by EUR 0.95 to EUR 17.98. The Land media authorities will again receive a share of the increase. As a result, the essential provisions of the 11. Rundfunkänderungsstaatsvertrag (11th...

On 5 March, the Bundesbeauftragte für Kultur und Medien (Federal Government Minister for Culture and Media - BKM) tabled a preliminary draft amendment to the Filmförderungsgesetz (Film Support Act – FFG) (see IRIS 2004-1: 10 and IRIS 2003-5: 14). The amendment was drafted following a round table meeting held in December 2007 between representatives of the film industry (associations of producers, cinemas, distributors and authors), Bundestag members, representatives of the Länder , the Filmförderungsanstalt (Film Support Institute) and regional film support bodies, who attended at the invitation...