News und Urteile

Wilde Beuger Solmecke recently explained why Amazon’s aggressive tactic of closing customer accounts without warning is unlawful. One person contacted Amazon using the arguments we suggested and asked for his account to be re-activated. The reply he received is striking.

The international ministry, Victory Outreach International, has accused Twitter of contributing to the infringement of its trademark rights by refusing to delete the username @VICTORYOUTREACH. The civil action has been brought before a court in Missouri USA.

Following criticism of German rapper Bushido’s new music video, “Stress without reason”, Berlin’s prosecution service has now commenced criminal proceedings. In light of the unacceptable lyrics in the video, the rapper should do well to anticipate civil consequences as well.

Ob privat angefertigte Videoaufnahmen in ein Gerichtsverfahren eingebracht werden können hängt von einer Interessenabwägung ab. Gleiches gilt auch für Tonbandaufnahmen. Besonderes Gewicht wird dabei den Persönlichkeitsrechten der betroffenen Personen zugemessen. Nach einer Entscheidung des AG München vom 06.06.2013 (Az. 343 C 4445/13) kann die Verwertung dann zulässig sein, wenn zum […]

Germany’s controversial ancillary copyright legislation (Leistungsschutzgesetz) comes into effect on 1st August 2013. The legislation brings with it uncertainty which has led many online content aggregators to remove snippets from their websites.

Google has denounced a judgment (14.05.2013 Az. VI ZR 269/12) holding the technology company liable for its auto-complete function. It has emerged in a recently published decision, that Google challenged Germany’s Federal Court of Justice (BGH) judgment on fair trial grounds, but lost.

Details of how Yahoo was forced by a court order to participate in the US intelligence surveillance programme, PRISM, are to be made public.

In 2010 Apple was accused of conspiring with numerous publishers to artificially and illegally keep the price of e-books high. Now, a New York court has ruled that Apple played a central role in leading the price-fixing racket.

Germany’s Federal Court of Justice has ruled that internet advertising aimed at children is prohibited. It is now illegal, for example, to aim internet advertising for toys directly at children (17.07.2013 Az. I ZR 34/12).

The media group RTL has recently started sending warning letters for alleged copyright infringements. The warning letters concern the TV series “Gute Zeiten, Schlechte Zeiten”. Recipients of the letters should not be intimidated into reacting too briskly.

The regional court in Frankfurt recently ruled that holiday home owners cannot always be held liable for a guest’s file sharing activities, even if they own the internet connection (28.06.2013 Az. 2-06 O 304/12).

Many people in Germany receive warning letters for allegedly illegally exchanging copyright-protected material on file sharing websites. According to new statistics for the first half of 2013, the number of file sharing court claims has now risen dramatically.

On 4th July 2013, the European Parliament voted in favour of a draft legislative proposal calling for tough new measures against cybercrime. The new rules will introduce minimum sentences for cybercriminals and better cooperation between member states.

The new music video from Bushido entitled “Stress without reason” has been sharply criticised. In light of the extreme lyrics, many believe the boundary to freedom of speech has been crossed and that the German rapper should face criminal and civil consequences.

Wenn Detektive im Rahmen eines  Unterhaltsrechtsstreites den Ehepartner heimlich im Wege des GPS-Tracking überwachen, kann das ärgerliche Folgen haben. Der BGH hat jetzt klargestellt, dass dadurch entstandene Kosten nicht erstattungsfähig sind.

Wenn Dateien von A nach B übertragen werden sollen, stellt sich oft die Frage, welcher Übertragungsweg der ideale ist. Insbesondere werden ungesicherte E-Mail-Versendungen vermehrt abgelehnt, da nicht sichergestellt werden kann, dass dies auch ohne Sicherheitslücke passiert.

The Deutsche Journalisten Verband (DJV) has called for rules on the clear division between journalism and advertising to be more rigorously enforced.

On 26 June 2013 members of the group europe-v-facebook.org lodged complaints with data protection commissioners around the EU. The group is alleging that European subsidiaries of Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Skype and Yahoo illegally transferred data to the NSA under PRSIM.

Germany’s Federal Administrative Court has decided that WDR is bound by the German Freedom of Information Act and must therefore publish information when it is requested.

According to a court in Germany, the purpose of a Facebook group is to facilitate freedom of expression. A Facebook group is not a legal entity. Therefore rights and responsibilities cannot be derived from it and consequently a person cannot possess a right to be appointed group administrator.

Microsoft has lost in a trademark dispute over the trade name “Skydrive”. The British TV broadcaster, British Sky Broadcasting Group (BSkyB) brought the claim after fears arose that customers may confuse Microsoft’s services with its own “Sky” services.

The law of landlord and tenant in Germany has a reputation for being one of the most tenant-friendly in Europe. Accordingly, a landlord can only terminate a tenancy agreement in certain circumstances.

Users of the internet payment service, PayPal, have recently been receiving so-called phishing e-mails. These fake emails are sent by criminal gangs in an attempt to obtain the credit card details of PayPal users.

Germany’s controversial ancillary copyright legislation (Leistungsschutzgesetz) comes into effect on 1 August 2013. In reaction to the new rules, Google News has developed a “confirmation statement” with which online media operators can signify their agreement to their content being displayed in Google’s search index. But will this attempt to avoid the […]

A social security tribunal in Germany has ruled that falling down the steps after collecting an employer’s post can be classed as a workplace accident and is therefore an insurable risk (judgment from 17.05.13, Az. S 3 U 2912/12).

Much outrage and comment was sparked by the news that the US intelligence service, NSA, gathers data and monitors the majority of worldwide internet and telephone communications. Now, relying on information received by whistle-blower Edward Snowdenthe, the British newspaper, the Guardian, has uncovered a huge privacy scandal of its own involving […]

On 10 April 2013 the German cabinet agreed a legislative proposal on orphan and out-of-commerce works. The proposal implements the EU’s directive on certain permitted uses of orphan works (2012/28/EU) which came into force in October 2012. The draft legislation will allow certain institutions to digitise and reproduce works whose […]

A father and internet connection owner has been held liable by a court in Germany of committing copyright infringements through the use of file sharing software. He and his family denied sharing copyright-protected files over the internet. Nevertheless, the district court of Cologne ordered the father to pay compensation and […]