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On 14 July 2005, the Court of Justice of the European Communities delivered a judgment further to the request for a preliminary ruling made by the French Cour de Cassation (Supreme Court).The French Court was in need of clarification on the interpretation of Council Directive 92/100/EEC on rental right and lending right and on certain rights related to copyright in the field of intellectual property and of Council Directive 93/83/EEC on the coordination of certain rules concerning copyright and rights related to copyright applicable to satellite broadcasting and cable retransmission. The context...

The Federal Government has passed a Bill banning tobacco advertising, which is designed to implement the EC Directive of 26 May 2003 on the European regulation of tobacco advertising. The Bill makes provision for a complete ban on advertising of tobacco products in broadcasting, the press and the Internet. Sponsorship by tobacco companies is also prohibited. The Directive must be transposed into German law by 31 July 2005. A complaint from Germany about the EC Tobacco Advertising Directive has been pending with the ECJ since September 2003. In the complaint, the Federal Government is particularly...

With majority support from the Government coalition, the German Bundestag (lower house of parliament) passed the so-called Informationsfreiheitsgesetz (Freedom of Information Act - IFG) on 3 June 2005. The Act is designed to give citizens the right to access official information held by the federal authorities. Opponents of the Act fear it could lead to a heavier workload for the administrative authorities and courts. On the other hand, some people think the Act does not go far enough, particularly in view of the extensive list of exceptions to the right to information. Now it is up to the Bundesrat...

On 20 January 2005, the Munich Obe rlandesgericht (Court of Appeal - OLG) dismissed a complaint by a management consultancy company against a journalist. The plaintiff had made a claim for an injunction, information and damages because the defendant, while investigating an allegation of surreptitious advertising in an ARD evening series, had used business documents belonging to the plaintiff and a secretly filmed video. The video shows a female employee of the plaintiff in a sales meeting with syndicate representatives, offering to place certain themes or products in the series in return for payment....

Two years after it was set up, the Kommission für Jugendschutz der Landesmedienanstalten (Youth Protection Commission of the regional media authorities - KJM) published an activity report at the beginning of April 2005. Since being established in 2003, the KJM has identified a total of 49 infringements of the provisions of the Jugendmedienschutz-Staatsvertrag (Inter-State Agreement on youth protection in the media - JMStV) in the programmes of private broadcasters. More than half of the 91 complaints it has dealt with have therefore been upheld. At present, the courts are examining the programme...