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In a ruling of 15 January 2014 (case no. 7 O 82/13), the Landgericht Saarbrücken (Saarbrücken Regional Court) ruled that a domain name registrar is obliged, if it has received a clear report of a copyright infringement, to examine and, if necessary, block the website concerned. A German storage media manufacturer had filed an action against an internationally active domain name registrar. In return for payment, the registrar registers and manages top-level domains, including “.com”, both directly and via resellers from all over the world. In August 2013, the plaintiff claimed that a music album...

According to media reports, the Landgericht München (Munich Regional Court - LG) issued a ruling on 25 February 2014, banning Google subsidiary YouTube from continuing to use its blocked content messages. In doing so, it granted a request for an injunction submitted in the first instance by the Gesellschaft für musikalische Aufführungs- und mechanische Vervielfältigungsrechte (society for musical performance and mechanical reproduction rights - GEMA). One of the messages displayed when users try to download certain videos says (in German): “Unfortunately, this video is not available in Germany,...

In a decision of 19 December 2013, the Landgericht Hamburg (Hamburg Regional Court - LG) issued a temporary order, preventing the company “The Archive AG” from continuing to issue warnings, in their current form, to RedTube users (see also IRIS 2014-1/19). On the one hand, the warnings influenced the relationship between RedTube and its customers, thereby violating the streaming portal’s right to carry on its trade. On the other, the warnings in their current form were unlawful because their wording was too vague. For example, they simply demanded that users refrain from watching a film, the rights...

In a ruling of 6 February 2014, the First Civil Chamber of the Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Supreme Court - BGH) decided that copyright claims are not, in principle, forfeited if rightsholders do not assert their rights over a period of many years (case no. I ZR 86/12). The plaintiffs had filed for an injunction and compensation against a broadcaster. The dispute concerned the use of images filmed by cameraman Herbert Ernst showing Peter Fechter’s attempted escape from the GDR, which the defendant had broadcast in programmes such as the Berliner Abendschau on 13 August 2010. The plaintiffs claimed...

The new Staatsvertrag über den Südwestrundfunk (Inter-State Agreement on Südwestrundfunk, the public service broadcaster for the Länder of Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate - SWR-StV), entered into force on 1 January 2014. The purpose of the new agreement is to guarantee a strong, properly functioning SWR in a digitised media world for a younger, trimedial audience. To this end, the agreement gives SWR greater flexibility to create its own business structure and develop multimedia forms of organisation. SWR’s new legal framework in particular makes provision for the clarification of its...