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In its decisions of 7 August 2013 and 23 September 2013, the Oberlandesgericht Hamm (Hamm Appeal Court - OLG) ruled that the YouTube video platform is not obliged to delete videos concerning a fatal traffic accident that name the person responsible. The plaintiff in the proceedings had caused a traffic accident in 2008, in which two people were killed. In 2009, he received a suspended one-year prison sentence, a EUR 5,000 fine and a one-month driving ban. The accident was the subject of numerous media reports. Unknown users collected these reports and created a number of videos about the accident....

In a ruling of 19 September 2013 (case no. 7 B 12.2358), the Bayerische Verwaltungsgerichtshof (Bavarian Administrative Court - BayVGH) overturned a decision of the Bayerische Landeszentrale für Medien (Bavarian New Media Authority - BLM), prohibiting a media company from operating its (entire) erotic teletext service on pages 600-900 between the hours of 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. The ban had been imposed following an examination of the service by an inspection team appointed by the Kommission für Jugendmedienschutz (Commission for the protection of young people in the media - KJM). The inspection team,...

In a decision of 23 October 2013, the Bundesverfassungsgericht (Federal Constitutional Court - BVerfG) rejected constitutional complaints about Article 32 of the Urheberrechtsgesetz (Copyright Act - UrhG). Article 32 UrhG enables the courts to control the fairness of remuneration for the granting of copyright for the use of a work by entitling authors to request a change to the level of remuneration. The claimant, a publishing firm, complained about this provision after being ordered to pay translators’ fees in two procedures before the Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Supreme Court - BGH). In the BGH’s...

In two parallel procedures, the Verwaltungsgericht Düsseldorf (Düsseldorf Administrative Court - VG) ruled, in its decisions of 27 September 2013 (case nos. 27 K 5549/12 and 27 K 5665/12), that the provision of Article 18(4) of the Landesmediengesetz Nordrhein-Westfalen (North Rhine-Westphalia Media Act - LMG) had not become inapplicable or redundant as a result of the switch to digital terrestrial broadcasting technology (DVB-T). According to Article 18(4) LMG, the Landesanstalt für Medien Nordrhein-Westfalen (North Rhine-Westphalia Media Authority - LfM) must ensure that analogue cable networks...

According to media reports, in a decision taken in a file-sharing case on 7 October 2013, the Oberlandesgericht Köln (Cologne Appeal Court - OLG) granted a rightsholder’s right to information held by an Internet access provider (case no. 6 W 84/13). In the case concerned, the rightsholder had asserted a claim to information under the terms of Article 101(9) of the Urheberrechtsgesetz (Copyright Act - UrhG) in order to issue a warning to a file-sharer whose IP address it had previously tried to trace. According to the court, a right to information arose if there was a sufficient degree of certainty...