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On 21 July 2005 a joint government and film industry working party presented proposals for a new film support fund. The fund's declared aims are to make the German film industry more effective and competitive and to make up the shortfall in German film production financing. These aims will be realised through establishment of a venture capital fund. New film-financing arrangements were needed, partly because it is planned to do away with the Media Fund which previously supported certain projects. The new support system will work by granting loans to be repaid under specific conditions. The amount...

In a decision of 10 May 2005, the Dusseldorf Verwaltungsgericht (administrative court) dismissed the action brought by Internet access providers against “blocking orders” imposed by the regional government in Dusseldorf that prevented access to two websites with radical right-wing content, including material that glorified or played down the holocaust. The content providers or service/host providers of both websites are registered in the USA. Insofar as action taken by the German authorities against these providers in the USA was not deemed to stand much chance of success, the case brought by the...

On 7 June 2005 the District Court in Karlsruhe fined a student for faking an attack on the news programme Tagesschau. The student, who attends a design college, was attempting to prove that the media reinforces terror. His project involved filming a fictitious news programme, using a set that copied the Tagesschau studio. In the course of the programme the female newsreader was attacked by an armed individual who made various demands, including that she read out texts about "evil" in the world. The "attacker" proceeded to threaten the newsreader, demanding that she carry out a telephone poll and...

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...