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On 20 June 2014, following the meeting of stakeholders held in Sao Paulo, Brazil on 23 and 24 April 2014, the UN Human Rights Council passed a resolution tabled by Brazil, Tunisia, Nigeria, Turkey, Sweden and the USA. The resolution calls on States to increase their efforts to improve Internet security in order to comply with Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The resolution reflects the UN Human Rights Council’s concern, following the NSA affair, to protect fundamental rights such as freedom of expression and data protection on the Internet. It builds on a declaration made...

According to an inspection of 14 video and music streaming services by the Bundesverband der Verbraucherzentrale (Federation of German Consumer Organisations - vzbv), a total of 130 of the general terms and conditions used by the service providers were unlawful because they put consumers at an unreasonable disadvantage. The vzbv has announced that it has so far cautioned 20 operators including Napster, Watchever, Spotify, Simfy and Amazon. As well as clauses restricting users’ warranty rights or operators’ liability, the vzbv questioned the operators’ right to block or withdraw their services at...

In a decision of 20 May 2014, which is not yet final and has not been published in full, the Oberlandesgericht Koblenz (Koblenz Appeal Court - OLG) ruled that a partner’s consent to the storage of intimate photographs and film footage is limited to the duration of the relationship (case no. 3 U 1288/13). During a relationship between the plaintiff and the defendant, who is a photographer, a large number of photographs of the plaintiff were taken with her consent. They included intimate pictures, some of which the plaintiff had taken herself and given to the defendant in digitised form. After the...

On 14 May 2014, the Oberlandesgericht Karlsruhe (Karlsruhe Appeal Court - OLG) ruled, in a decision yet to be published in full, that the Bild newspaper, by publishing a photograph of a famous footballer in which a woman appeared by chance in the background, infringed the woman’s own image rights under Article 22 of the Kunsturhebergesetz (Art Copyright Act - KUG) and, at the same time, breached her general right to privacy under Article 823(1) of the Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch (Civil Code - BGB). The disputed photograph was published in 2012 in an article about a robbery committed against the footballer...

In a ruling of 29 April 2014 (case no. VI ZR 246/12), the Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Supreme Court - BGH) rejected an appeal by a plaintiff who, as the heir of a famous entertainer, had wanted to pursue a claim for financial compensation for an infringement of the late entertainer’s right to privacy. The entertainer had argued that articles published in the defendant’s magazines had infringed his right to privacy and claimed financial compensation from the defendant. His complaint had been faxed to the court the day before he died, but had not been sent to the defendant until a few weeks later. In...