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The Investigating Commission on Media Concentrations (Kommission zur Ermittlung der Konzentration im Medienbereich - KEK) (see IRIS 1997-6: 13) has formally approved the merger of Luxembourg's CLT and the Bertelsmann subsidiary UFA. At the end of the investigation procedure the Commission concluded that the merger, effective since January 1997, gave the two companies a viewer market share of approximately 27%, i.e. below the ceiling of 30% indicated in Section 26 of the Agreement between the Federal States on Broadcasting applicable in the Federal Republic of Germany. There was therefore no reason...

The Bundestag passed the fourth Act amending the Copyright Act (Urheberrechtsgesetzes) in February 1998. The changes bring the Act into line with the new possibilities offered by information and communication technologies. They also implement Council Directive 93/83 EEC of 27 September 1993 on the co-ordination of certain rules concerning copyright and rights related to copyright applicable to satellite broadcasting and cable retransmission (OJEC No. L 248: 15). The amending Act is designed to ensure that the financial rights of authors and artists are also protected in the case of satellite programmes,...

Under a judgment given by the Federal Administrative Court (Bundesverwaltungsgericht - BVerwG) on 11 March 1998, trailers for films rated suitable only for over-16s or over-18s by the Voluntary Self-Monitoring Authority ( Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle - FSK) may not be shown before 10 or 11 p.m. The regulations on protection of children and adolescents embodied in par. 3, sub-par. 2 to 4 of the Agreement between Federal States on Broadcasting (Rundfunkstaatsvertrages - RfStV), in the third amended version of 26.8-11.9.1996, are satisfied only if restrictions on the times at which films containing...

On 24 March 1998, the Appeal Court (Oberlandesgericht - OLG) in Koblenz rejected an appeal against a judgment given by the Mainz Regional Court (Landesgericht - LG) on 23 December 1997. The proceedings concerned a film dealing with the murder of several soldiers in Lebach in 1969 (see IRIS 1998-3: 8). The plaintiff, one of the main offenders responsible for the murders, thus succeeded in his application to stop the film's being shown. The court decided that he was entitled to an injunction against showing of the film under Article 1004 of the Civil Code (Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch - BGB), in conjunction...

On appeal, Princess Caroline of Monaco has again failed in her action against Burda, the publishers of Bunte, which had published photographs of her without her permission. On 11 March 1998, the Hamburg Court of Appeal (Oberlandesgericht - OLG) dismissed as unfounded an appeal against a judgment given at first instance by the Regional Court (Landesgericht - LG), which declared publication lawful and refused to grant an injunction. The case concerned 23 photographs taken of the princess in her leisure-time, including six with Prince Ernst August of Hannover at a horse show. The Appeal Court found...