Search results : 1348

On 18 October 2007, the Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Court of Justice - BGH ) ruled that making pornographic offerings accessible on the Internet by simply entering an identification card or passport number did not meet the demands of legislation on the protection of minors (Case no. I ZR 102/05). Nor was it sufficient to impose an additional requirement to effect an account transaction or state a postcode. The parties to the dispute were both suppliers of age verification systems (AVSs) for operators of websites with pornographic content. The purpose of these systems is to prevent minors from accessing...

The European Commission has prohibited state aid provided by the Landesanstalt für Medien Nordrhein-Westfalen (North Rhine-Westphalia Media Authority - LfM) to private broadcasters for converting to digital terrestrial television, as this is in breach of EC state aid rules. The authority had planned to bear part of the costs incurred by private broadcasters for the digital transmission of signals and had made available a total of EUR 6.8 million, to be disbursed over a period of five years. As early as November 2005, the Commission stated that a similar DVB-T subsidy planned by the Medienanstalt...

On 21 September 2007, the German parliament approved the second law on the settlement of copyright in the information society. In so doing, it followed the recommendation of the coordinating legal committee i.e. not to establish a mediating committee. With this law that will presumably come into effect on 1 January 2008, the long-running discussions on the “second basket” of copyright reform (see IRIS 2006-5: 11 and IRIS 2006-3: 11) will come to a temporary end. The new law contains amendments of particular relevance to the field of unknown forms of use, provision of access to works through libraries,...

The Federal Cartel Office (BKartA) has imposed fines on ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG and the RTL Group in the amount of EUR 120 million and EUR 96 million respectively. The German guardian of competition accused the broadcasting groups of vertically sealing-off the advertising market. The two media concerns have accepted severe penalties, whereupon the BkartA subsequently, on 5 October 2007, discontinued the current procedure. Vertical restriction of advertising was apparent in the “share-deals” offered over many years by the marketing firms of the broadcasters: SevenOne Media and IP Deutschland. Such...

In a ruling of 25 September 2007, the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) decided that a judicial review should be carried out on the decision by the Federal Cartel Office (BkartA) to ban the planned merger between Axel Springer AG and ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG. The BGH thereby quashed a decision by the Düsseldorf Regional Appeal Court (OLG), which had ruled that the appeal by Springer against the ban by the BKartA was inadmissible (see IRIS 2006-4: 10). The OLG took the view that the subject of dispute had been settled, inferring this from the fact that the Springer publishing house and the investors...