Search results : 1375

According to unanimous reports by the parties involved, the Verband Deutscher Drehbuchautoren (Association of German Scriptwriters - VDD), Allianz Deutscher Produzenten (German Producers’ Alliance) and Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (German public service broadcaster - ZDF) have reached an agreement on the main provisions of contracts between commissioned producers and authors. The agreement is designed to bring existing contractual structures into line with the changing conditions of use in the digital world and to ensure that authors are fairly remunerated. The starting point is the selection of...

On 21 September 2012, the Federal Government announced that the Deutsche Filmförderfonds (German Film Fund - DFFF) would be extended for a further three years. As part of the arrangement, film producers will, in future, be obliged to produce barrier-free versions of subsidised films. The DFFF was created on the basis of the Directive of the Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien (Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media - BKM) “Anreiz zur Stärkung der Filmproduktion in Deutschland” (incentive to strengthen film production in Germany) (DFFF Directive). According to the...

On 27 September 2012, the Landgericht Köln (Cologne District Court) banned the ARD and one of its members, NDR, from distributing a particular version of the Tagesschau app. A total of 11 newspaper publishers that offer electronically accessible services had complained that the version of the application dated 15 June 2011 broke competition regulations. The court rejected the plaintiff’s initial argument that the Tagesschau app had not been granted the necessary approval. Rather, the application, as a telemedium, had passed the three-step test under Article 11f of the Rundfunkstaatsvertrag (Inter-State...

On 22 August 2012, the Bundesverfassungsgericht (Federal Constitutional Court - BVerfG) rejected a lawyer’s complaint about the obligation to pay a broadcasting tax for his Internet-capable PC, which he used for his work. The lawyer had claimed that his basic rights to freedom of information (Art. 5 of the Grundgesetz (Basic Law) - GG) and occupation (Art. 12 GG) had been infringed. He also complained that he had been treated unequally (Art. 3 GG) vis-à-vis people who did not own such reception equipment. The lawyer claimed that, although he used his PC for Internet applications at work, he did...

On 25 October 2012, a German Civil Court, the Kammergericht (KG) Berlin, decided (file number of the judgment: 10 U 136/12) that the publication of a documentary containing unauthorized recorded images of a third-party about facilities on a foreign land is allowed. The applicant is a public institution operating the public transport system with busses and subways in the city of Berlin. The defendant is a producer and director of a film, which documents the graffiti art scene in Berlin. The disputed film published by the defendant includes unapproved recorded images about facilities and trains of...