Tuesday 17 December 2013

UK To Introduce Second Level Domains

Nominet approves *.uk domains


Nominet, the UK internet registry company, has approved plans to offer registrations directly before the ‘dot’ in .uk. From summer 2014, shorter, simpler ‘example.uk’ domain names will be available, representing the biggest modification of the .uk namespace since it began. In the small proportion of instances where there could be competition – e.g. where one person holds example.co.uk and another holds example.org.uk – the shorter domain will be offered to the .co.uk registrant. (link)

Data Processing and Advertising

New guideline for Germany by "Düsseldorfer Kreis"


Many companies like to process personnel data of individuals, which they are dealing with in the course of their business, in order to use such data for the promotion and advertising of their products or services. The committee of the governmental information officers in Germany ("Düsseldorfer Kreis") has now published guidance on a compliant data processing for advertising purposes under German law.(link)

Tuesday 3 December 2013

Use of Protected Works by University Without Licence

BGH 1 ZR 76/12


The German Federal Court had to decide on the limits of the use of protected works by an University in its lectures. In support of research and education the German copyright law regulates the free use of a small part of the work protected by copyright. The University made some parts of a scientific book available to its students via a digital platform without retaining a licence from the copyright holder. The Court found that a small part of a work should be interpreted as maximum of 12% or 100 pages of the book. 

Statutory Information in Google Adwords Advertisement

BGH I ZR 2/12


The German Federal Court found that statutory information with regard to a product or service, in this case a pharmaceutical product promoted in a Google Adwords-Ad, does not need to be contained in the digital advert itself but it needs to provide a link to the a site or other display where the statutory information can be directly found and easily read.

Facebook and the Beheading Video

Facebook's contentious censor policy


Beginning of the year Facebook removed a video on its site which showed the beheading of a woman in Mexico due to the mounting complaints of relatives, rights groups, business circles, politicians and parts of the general public. In October Facebook allowed the video back on arguing the video was shown to condemn the violence. End of that month Facebook banned the video again under the mounting pressure. Facebook prohibits nudity, drug use and pornography on its site. It also bans the glorification of violent content but pursuits a case-by-case strategy in order to accommodate the condemnation of violence. 

Copyright Infringement and Warning Letters

Gesetz gegen unseriöse Geschäftspraktiken / Act against improper business practices.


The German legislator passed a new law which amends various existing laws, in particular those relating to the provision of legal services and the court proceedings, to give better protection against improper business practices. Among others it amends the regulations of the copyright law with respect to warning letters to be sent to the infringer. The letter has to fulfil certain material requirements. The legal expenses claim has a new cap.