Search results : 1348

The Federal Government has presented a draft Bill to amend the Strafprozessordnung (German Code of Criminal Procedure - StPO). The Bill aims to address the problems of guaranteeing freedom of the press and broadcasting, as set out in the Basic Law, on the one hand, whilst providing a functional criminal justice system capable of establishing the truth on the other. In the Government's opinion, it is unsatisfactory that the right of refusal to give evidence should apply only to periodicals, broadcasts and statements made by third parties. Currently, a journalist's right to refuse to disclose material...

The Bundesverfassungsgericht (Federal Constitutional Court - BVerfG) in its judgment of 15 December 1999 has reinforced the protection afforded parents under the general right to privacy enshrined in Art 6 paras. 1 and 2 of the Grundgesetz (Basic Law - GG) with regard to the publication of portrayals of parents bestowing their attentions on their children. The complaint lodged by Caroline of Monaco concerned a ruling of the Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Supreme Court) of 19 December 1995 (file No. VI ZR 15/95). In proceedings before the latter against a newspaper publisher, the plaintiff and appellant...

The Oberlandesgericht Hamburg (Regional Court of Appeal - OLG) in a judgment of 13 June 1999 dismissed an appeal against a ruling of the Hamburg District Court (Landesgericht -LG) obliging the defendant to desist from using his Internet domain name "www.mitwohnzentrale.de" without further qualification for commercial purposes. The plaintiff was a competitor in the commercial short-term rented property market. The OLG deemed use of the domain name to amount to unfair competition within the meaning of § 1 of the Gesetz gegen den unlauteren Wettbewerb (Unfair Competition Act - UWG). In the Court's...

The Oberlandesgericht Cologne (Regional Court of Appeal - OLG) has granted a temporary injunction against the transmission of electronic press reviews via E-Mail on the grounds that it is incompatible with copyright law. The defendant collecting society "Wort" had concluded an agreement with a company using an electronic press review on its in-house communication system for the payment of copyright dues. The collecting society was prohibited from concluding agreements with third parties providing for the scanning and storage of press reviews and their dissemination via E-Mail as it was deemed...

In a judgment of 4 November 1999, the Hamburg Regional Court of Appeal (Oberlandesgericht - OLG) ordered an Internet service provider (ISP) to desist from further co-operation in the unlawful competition activities of a website operator. Acting on behalf of the website operator, the ISP arranged registration of a ".com" domain, registering itself under "tech-c", "zone-c" and "billing-c", and citing the website operator as an administrative contact under "admin-c". As is normal practice in respect of a domain name registration, the ISP also provided one of the two nameservers required for incorporation...