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In a decision of 18 November 2016, the Landgericht Hamburg (Hamburg District Court - LG) ruled that posting a link to an image illegally made accessible by a third party could constitute a breach of copyright (case no. 310 0 402/16). In the case at hand, the defendant, who sold self-published learning materials through his website, had posted a link to a photo. The image concerned had been edited in breach of the terms of its Creative Commons licence, since various UFOs had been added without any indication that the image had been edited. Although photos can, in principle, be edited in accordance...

After hearing a total of four appeal procedures, the Bundesverwaltungsgericht (Federal Administrative Court - BVerwG) decided, in rulings of 7 December 2016 that have not yet been published in full, that the levying of the broadcasting licence fee for business premises and commercial vehicles does not infringe the German Constitution (case nos. 6 C 12.15, 6 C 13.15, 6 C 14.15 and 6 C 49.15). The Rundfunkbeitragsstaatsvertrag (Inter-State Agreement on the broadcasting licence fee - RBStV), which entered into force on 1 January 2013, requires owners of business premises and commercial vehicles to...

According to media reports, following years of legal discussions and negotiations, the German collecting society for music rights, GEMA, and the company Google reached an agreement on 1 November 2016 on remuneration for music content on the Google-owned YouTube video portal. GEMA represents approximately 70,000 musicians and publishers, assisting them with the commercial exploitation of their works. It negotiates tariffs for the different types of use of music, issues licences, verifies the analogue and digital use of works and collects licence revenue on its members’ behalf. Founded in 2005, the...

In a ruling issued on 20 September 2016 (case no. 5 K 145/15.NW), the Verwaltungsgericht Neustadt (Neustadt Administrative Court - VG Neustadt) decided that exemptions from the obligation to pay the broadcasting licence fee cannot be granted on religious grounds because the licence fee is not connected to any ideological belief. Since 1 January 2013, the broadcasting licence fee has been charged per household rather than solely to owners of reception devices. A free church pastor had previously had a complaint about the fee rejected. He had claimed that the new regulation was unconstitutional and...

In a ruling of 30 September 2016, the Oberlandesgericht Köln (Cologne Appeal Court - OLG Köln) decided that the Tagesschau app, in its version available on 15 June 2011, was unlawful (case no. 6 U 188/12) and banned the public service broadcasters from distributing it in this form. Several German newspaper publishers had applied for an injunction against the association of German public broadcasters, ARD. The plaintiffs had claimed that the app infringed Article 11d of the Rundfunkstaatsvertrag (Inter-State Broadcasting Agreement - RStV), which prohibits public service broadcasters from using telemedia...