Search results : 1375

On 13 November 2014, the Budgetary Committee of the German Bundestag (lower house of parliament) voted, in accordance with the Federal Finance Ministry’s 2015 finance report (see table 18 in the report), to reduce the level of aid to the Deutscher Filmförderfonds (German Federal Film Fund - DFFF) from EUR 60 million to EUR 50 million. As a result, the original plans to make even greater cuts in 2015 and close the fund completely from 2017 were abandoned and the long-term future of the DFFF was secured. The fund is used to support German film projects by reimbursing up to 20% of production costs...

At its meeting in Halle in mid-November 2014, the Gesamtkonferenz (General Conference - GK) of the German media authorities (comprising the Conference of Chairpersons of the Decision-Taking Councils and the Conference of Directors) criticised the inadequate provision of accessible programming on private television. According to the media authorities’ press release on the subject, published on 19 November 2014, the RTL media group in particular remains insufficiently committed in this field. In a study carried out over the last two years, the number of subtitled programmes broadcast by the two main...

In a ruling of 31 October 2014 (case no. 6 U 60/14), the Oberlandesgericht Köln (Cologne Court of Appeal - OLG) decided that the publication of a photograph on the Deutschlandradio website did not represent commercial use for the purposes of the Creative Commons licence (CC licence). The plaintiff, a photographer, had offered his photographs for public use under the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 2.0 licence (CC-BY-NC). After the defendant, a public corporation that operates the Deutschlandradio radio station, had made one of the plaintiff’s photographs publicly...

In a ruling of 25 September 2014 (case no. 6 U 111/14), the Oberlandesgericht Frankfurt am Main (Frankfurt am Main Court of Appeal - OLG) decided that the advertising slogan for a mobile phone tariff, “Immer Netz ... hat der Netzer” (the network never fails the networker), was not a misleading statement for the purposes of Article 5(1)(1) of the Gesetz gegen unlauteren Wettbewerb (Act against Unfair Competition - UWG) concerning the essential characteristics of a service. The defendant, a telecommunications company, had advertised its service as follows: “Immer Fisch hat … der Fischer. Immer Glas...

In a ruling of 27 November 2014 (case no. I ZR 124/1), which is yet to be published in full, the Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Supreme Court - BGH) decided that technical measures to protect video games are themselves protected under Article 95a of the Urheberrechtsgesetz (Copyright Act - UrhG). The plaintiff, as rightsholder, produces and sells the Nintendo DS video game console as well as video games available exclusively on memory cards that are only suitable for use on this console, which are inserted into a memory card slot. The defendant sells adapters for the console on the internet that are...