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Following the decision by the lower house of the German parliament (Bundestag) on 3 July 2003 to accept the compromise proposal worked out by its mediation committee on the Gesetz zur Regulierung des Urheberrechts in der Informationsgesellschaft (Law Regulating Copyright in the Information Society), the upper house (Bundesrat) added its consent to the proposal on 11 July 2003. The law was officially published on 12 September, and substantially entered into force on 13 September. The two houses have thus agreed that, with respect to the controversial privileging of private copies in accordance...

The Direktorenkonferenz der Landesmedienanstalten (Directors' Conference of the regional regulatory authorities, DLM), meeting on 17-18 September 2003, has emphasized the necessity of a coordinated introduction of DVB-T and digital radio. The Landesmedienanstalten view DVB-T as providing an opportunity to ensure pluralism on the terrestrial platform as well, if a range of regional programmes is offered in addition to nation-wide ones. They welcome the intention to follow up the introduction of DVB-T in the Berlin-Brandenburg region (see IRIS 2002-4: 6) with its introduction in the state of North...

The Kommission zur Ermittlung der Konzentration im Medienbereich (Media Concentration Commission, KEK) is an institution established on the basis of Art. 35 of the Rundfunkstaatsvertrag (German Inter-State Broadcasting Agreement, RfStV). It assists the Landesmedienanstalten (regional regulatory authorities) in fulfilling their responsibilities in relation to ensuring pluralism in private broadcasting. It has the task of making a final judgment on issues associated with ensuring pluralism in connection with the nation-wide broadcasting of television programmes (Art. 36 [(1.)] RfStV). On 9 September...

The Bertelsmann media giant has been granted temporary legal protection in Germany from a claim for compensation filed in the USA in connection with its support of the Napster Internet file-sharing service. On 25 July 2003, the Bundesverfassungsgericht (Federal Constitutional Court - BVerfG) granted the company's claim for such protection in emergency proceedings. Bertelsmann's competitors EMI and Universal had lodged a joint claim in the USA for USD 17 billion in compensation for copyright infringements related to Bertelsmann's stake in Napster. However, the Second Chamber of the BVerfG prohibited...

On 17 July 2003, the 1st Civil Chamber of the Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Supreme Court - BGH) issued a verdict following a claim by the publishing group Handelsblatt GmbH for an injunction concerning " Paperboy ", an Internet search engine for press articles. It decided that the plaintiff's copyright had not been infringed and that the use of so-called "deep links" was not anticompetitive. The plaintiff publishes the " Handelsblatt " and " DM " newspapers. It also publishes individual articles from these newspapers on its Internet site. The defendant operates a so-called meta-search engine for...