Search results : 1372

On 19 October 2017, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) delivered its judgment in the case of Fuchsmann v. Germany, which concerned the online version of a New York Times article accessible in Germany. The applicant in the case is an internationally active entrepreneur in the media sector, and holds the position of Vice-President of the World Jewish Congress. In June 2001, the New York Times published an article about an investigation into corruption against R.L. The article was entitled “[L] Media Company Faces a Federal Inquiry”, and included the statements that the applicant had “ties...

The Gesetz zur Verbesserung der Rechtsdurchsetzung in sozialen Netzwerken (Act to improve law enforcement in social networks - NetzDG) entered into force on 1 October 2017. The new law is designed to force social networks to deal more quickly and more comprehensively with complaints, in particular from users, about hate speech and other criminal content. The act applies to social networks defined in Section 1(1)(1) NetzDG as telemedia service providers which, for profit-making purposes, operate Internet platforms designed to enable users to share any content with other users or to make such content...

In a case against Germany, two media companies - Axel Springer SE, a publishing house, and RTL, a broadcasting company - complained about a restriction on publishing pictures of the accused (S.) in a brutal murder case. S. was charged with killing his parents, dismembering their bodies, burning some of the parts, flushing others down the toilet and disposing of the rest by putting them in barrels. S. had already confessed to the police, while a psychiatric expert opinion ordered for the trial had concluded that S. was suffering from a schizoid personality disorder at the time when he had committed...

According to media reports, the LG Hamburg (Hamburg District Court) granted an injunction on 7 August 2017, preventing ARD’s Panorama magazine programme from rebroadcasting footage that had been exclusively shown in a G20 documentary by Spiegel TV (case no. 308 O 287/17). The case concerned a report entitled ‘Ein verhängnisvoller Abend’ (A fateful evening), broadcast during an episode of NDR’s Panorama magazine programme devoted to police violence during the G20 summit. The report had contained footage previously broadcast and exclusively owned by Spiegel TV. NDR had shown the footage even though...

In a ruling of 17 August 2017, the OLG München (Munich Court of Appeal) decided that open source software used to block advertising on websites did not infringe cartel law, any other kind of competition law or copyright law (case no. 29 U 1917/16). The plaintiffs in the case at hand operate free websites with journalistic content that are financed through advertising. The defendant distributes free open source software that can block advertising on websites. The details of which content is blocked by the software are not initially provided; rather, this information is found in the form of so-called...