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After the ruling on the lottery by the German Bundesverfassungsgericht (Constitutional Court - BVerfG), interested parties are now debating its consequences for advertising law. The Landesmedienanstalten ( Land media authorities), as the regulators of private broadcasting, are currently discussing the different versions of the ruling with private broadcasters. In its decision of 28 March 2006, the Bundesverfassungsgericht had ruled that the state's sports betting monopoly in the Bundesland of Bavaria was incompatible with the basic right to the freedom of occupation. Under the Gesetz über die vom...

The Landgericht Hamburg (Hamburg District Court - LG ) ruled in a recently published judgment that operators of Internet forums are responsible for illegal content posted on their fora from the moment it becomes accessible to the public rather than when it is actually read. The defendant in the case at hand was the on-line news service Heise , which regularly publishes articles relevant to the IT sector and operates Internet fora in which readers can post their views on current issues. Following an article concerning the business practices of a particular company, several forum participants had...

In a ruling of 26 January 2006, the Bundesfinanzhof (Federal Court of Finance - BFH) confirmed that the standard rate of taxation applies to the turnover of pay-TV companies. Pay-TV providers cannot benefit from the tax reduction for cinemas provided for in Art. 12 para. 2 no. 7b of the Umsatzsteuergesetz (Turnover Tax Act - UStG 1980). The broadcast of a television programme is not the same as a film presentation in the sense of the aforementioned Act. The plaintiff is a pay-TV provider whose customers can watch an encrypted television channel in return for a fixed monthly fee. In the year of...

Satellite operator SES Astra plans to encrypt its digital satellite services. From 2007, the channels of the ProSiebenSat1 and RTL groups will only be broadcast in coded form, opening up new sources of income for the broadcasters. The channels concerned will cost an initial once-off payment of less than EUR 10, plus a monthly charge of less than EUR 5. Viewers will also have to buy a special set-top box and smart card. When analogue satellite transmission is finally cut off in 2010, the channels concerned will no longer be available free of charge via satellite. However, public service channels...

On 22 March 2006, the Federal Government adopted the second wave of copyright law amendments enshrined in the Bill modernising copyright law. The Bill had been published for debate in January 2006 (see IRIS 2006-3:11). An amendment to Art. 53 of the Urhebergesetz (Copyright Act - UrhG ) concerning copying for private and other "own" uses is designed to make it clear that the use of illegal file-swapping sites on the Internet is not covered by the exemption contained in Art. 53 UrhG . Under the Bill, the right to copy for private or "own" uses is no longer just restricted where the source is obviously...