Search results : 1375

In a ruling of 13 March 2003, the Bundesgerichthof (Federal Supreme Court - BGH) decided that pay-TV subscribers have no legal right to cancel a subscription agreement. Such agreements do not necessarily need to include a clause concerning power of revocation in favour of the subscriber. The plaintiff had referred to Article 505 para. 1 no. 2 of the Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch (Civil Code - BGB), under which consumers are legally entitled to cancel hire purchase agreements concerning goods of the same kind. Since this rule only applies to goods (and not services), it would only apply by analogy in...

The legal dispute over whether the broadcast of the film "Saving Private Ryan" was admissible (see IRIS 2003-4: 6 and IRIS 2002-8: 6) has been resolved. ProSieben Sat.1 Media AG (ProSieben) and the Medienanstalt BerlinBrandenburg (Berlin-Brandenburg Media Authority MABB) had taken their dispute over the admissibility under the youth protection law of the broadcast of an edited version of the film at 20.15 to a number of different courts. On 5 January 2003, ProSieben had then broadcast the film at 20.15 without the necessary permission, whereupon the MABB launched proceedings to fine the broadcaster....

The highest German courts still cannot agree on the meaning and scope of human dignity as a restriction on freedom of expression. In a decision of 11 March 2003, the Bundesverfassungsgericht (Federal Constitutional CourtBVerfG) quashed a ruling made on 6 December 2001 by the Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Supreme Court - BGH) in a dispute relating to competition law (see IRIS 2002-2: 14) and referred the case back to the BGH for a review. In the same case, on 12 December 2000 the BVerfG had overturned and referred back the BGH's first ruling of 6 July 1995 (see IRIS 2001-2: 13). The BGH had subsequently...

On 2 April 2003, the Federal Government Minister for Culture and Media tabled a draft new Filmförderungsgesetz (Film Support Act - FFG). The main aim of the proposed new Act is to adapt the film support system to today's economic climate. Overall, according to the accompanying explanatory memorandum, the current situation of the German film industry is "difficult". This is due to a host of reasons, such as financing problems caused by increasing caution amongst banks, rising production and marketing costs all over the world and a general lack of market growth. The Entwurf des neuen Filmförderungsgesetzes...

In a recently published ruling, the Oberverwaltungsgericht Berlin (Berlin Higher Administrative Court - OVG) gave its opinion on the question of which legal measures the Medienanstalt Berlin-Brandenburg (Berlin-Brandenburg Media Authority - MABB) could use against a TV broadcaster that had shown what it considered to be an extended advertising programme. In the programme ars vivendi, a so-called "top gastronomic TV magazine programme", various restaurants and hotels in the Berlin and Brandenburg region have been featured in rapid succession since 1997; since the total length of the programme was...