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At its meeting in Stuttgart on 31 January 2017, the Kommission für Zulassung und Aufsicht (Commission on Licensing and Supervision - ZAK) of the Landesmedienanstalten (regional media authorities) decided that Deutsche Kreditbank (DKB) should have obtained a licence to provide a live Internet stream of matches in the World Men’s Handball Championship. Although the media watchdog did not impose a fine in this case, it announced that it would take stricter measures against providers of similar streaming services in future. Between 11 and 29 January 2017, DKB had provided a live stream of 51 of the...

On 23 February 2017, the Kommission für Zulassung und Aufsicht (Commission on Licensing and Supervision - ZAK) of the Landesmedienanstalten (regional media authorities) decided that platform operator NetCologne may not charge some private channels for carrying their programmes while, at the same time, carrying others free of charge. Since 2015, during the introduction of a new business model, NetCologne GmbH had, one by one, been replacing its existing agreements with broadcasters with new ones. This meant that some broadcasters had to pay for their programmes to be distributed while others did...

In eight different procedures, the Bundesverwaltungsgericht (Federal Administrative Court) decided on 25 January 2017 that the application of the broadcasting licence fee to second homes is compatible with the principle of equal treatment (case nos. 6 C 7.16, 6 C 11.16, 6 C 12.16, 6 C 14.16, 6 C 15.16, 6 C 18.16, 6 C 23.16 and 6 C 31.16). The plaintiffs had argued that the full licence fee should not apply. Under the previous system, in which the fee had depended on ownership of a reception device, they had only been required to pay a reduced fee on the grounds that they only owned a radio or new...

On 2 February 2017, after conducting a three-step test, the BR-Rundfunkrat (Broadcasting Council of Bayerische Rundfunk - BR) approved the telemedia concept “Alignment of the retention period for fictional format categories on DasErste.de with the ARD retention period concept”. In the test, which lasted more than 12 months, experts assessed whether the telemedia concept met the democratic, social, and cultural needs of society and promoted media competition, as well as studying its financial impact on the market. Two factors determine for how long videos remain available in the ARD media library...

In Germany it is illegal to copy the so-called “bot software” that allows players of online role-playing games to automatically enhance their online characters. In a recently published decision of 6 October 2016, the Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Supreme Court - BGH) decided that the use of such bot software for commercial purposes infringes the copyright of the developers of the online games concerned (case no. I ZR 25/15). Blizzard Entertainment, developer of the online role-playing games “World of Warcraft” and “Diablo III”, had filed a lawsuit against Bossland GmbH, which had developed a form...