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After it was announced early in the year that the provisions of the Medienerlass (Media Decree) of 23 February 2001 were to be examined and revised (see IRIS 2003-6: 11), the Bundesministerium der Finanzen (Ministry of Finance) issued a communication on 5 August 2003, finally stating its position on the taxation of the profits of film and TV support funds and in particular the question of whether investors in these funds should be treated as producers. According to Section 5.2 of the Einkommenssteuergesetz (Income Tax Act), investors, as long as they are treated as "film producers", can designate...

Under an agreement between pay-TV broadcaster Premiere and the Hamburgische Anstalt für neue Medien (Hamburg New Media Authority - HAM), the supervisory body, Premiere will introduce a new measure to protect minors from the pornographic films it shows after 1 August 2003. In view of the constant availability of films on demand (through the pay-per-view system), the regional media authorities had decided that additional precautions were necessary under the terms of Art. 9.2 of the Jugendmedienschutz-Staatsvertrag (Inter-State Agreement on Protection of Minors in the Media - JMStV) (Art. 3.5 of the...

As well as defining the remit of the public service broadcasters, the 7. Rundfunkänderungsstaatsvertrag (Amendment to the 7th Inter-State Agreement on Broadcasting - RfÄStV), adopted at the end of June 2003, sets out some new regulations on improvements to regional reporting. In order to ensure diversity of opinion, Art. 25 (4) of the RfStV stipulates that general television programmes which are transmitted nationwide should include so-called window programmes in accordance with the provisions of State law. Under Art. 25 (2) RfStV, broadcasters which achieve a viewer rating of 25% to 30%, which...

During the Conference of Minister-Presidents held at the end of June 2003, agreement was reached over future amendments to the Rundfunkstaatsvertrag (Inter-State Agreement on Broadcasting - RStV). The amendments mainly relate to the remit of the public service broadcasters and the strengthening of regional reporting by private broadcasters. The remit of public service broadcasters ARD and ZDF and public service radio broadcaster DeutschlandRadio will be amended in two stages. Firstly, the broadcasters' general objectives and certain programming rules will be incorporated in a so-called Grundnorm...

In a ruling issued on 22 May 2003 (case no. 1 StR 70/03), the Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Supreme Court BGH) decided on the admissibility under criminal law of renting out pornographic videos using automated video libraries. The defendants run an automated video library in the form of a club. Around 30% of the videos available for rental contain pornographic material. The video dispensing machine is located in business premises which are not staffed and to which access is restricted. People wishing to rent videos must fill out a written application form. Using this form and the applicant's identity...