Monthly Archives: October 2014

For bloggers and other content sharers: why framing of third party content does not violate third party copyright

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The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has stated that framing of content (such as embedding Youtube videos or other content on blogs and other websites via link) does not violate the copyright of the author of the respective content. In particular, such framing is not considered a “making available to the public” according to the European directive on copyright in the Information Society (2001/29/EC) and section 19a of the German Copyright Act (“UrhG”). However, it can be derived from the court ruling that this applies only if the reproduction is not meant for a new audience and does not use a different reproduction technique.

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Home office solutions for employees – requirements under German data protection law

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Under German data protection law, as well as under the European data protection directive (95/46/EC), there exist no specific provisions that would govern the processing of personal data in home office scenarios. Only few German data protection authorities published recommendations on how or which kind of technical or organizational measures should be implemented, if a company wants to grant its employees the benefit of working at home. The few existing recommendations remain mainly vague and don’t name specific measures which must be taken.
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The Title of an App Can Be Protected as a Work Title under German Trademark Law – If it Is Not Merely Descriptive

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The Higher Regional Court of Cologne (OLG Köln) held in its decision (court ref. 6 U 205/13) dated September 5, 2014 that the title of a mobile app can enjoy protection against similar titles for similar services. However, the claimant who is the operator of a German weather information website that runs under the domain <wetter.de> and an app with identical content also titled <wetter.de> cannot prohibit the use of the title <wetter DE> or <wetter-de> for a similar weather app by the defendant. Continue reading →

Copyright Law: The Author’s Right to be Named

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According to the district court of Kassel’s decision of June 6th, 2014 (file number: 410 C 3000/13) authors of copyrighted works can exercise their right to decide if and how they want to be named as author of their works through terms and conditions. Continue reading →

(More) certainty ahead: liability of commercial operators of open WLAN networks

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Commercial WLAN operators will soon be certain about when and in how far they are liable for violations of third party rights by their users. The District Court in Munich (7 O 14719/12) has stayed the proceedings in a pending litigation and has submitted questions to the European Court of Justice (ECJ).

Inter alia, the court asks the liability privilege regulated in the European e-commerce directive and the German Teleservices Act (“Telemediengesetz” – TMG) is to be interpreted in a way that claims for injunctive relief, damage claims, and claims for the reimbursement of costs for warnings and court proceedings are excluded against the WLAN-operator in general or at least with regard to the first violation of third party rights. According to the respective provisions in the directive and the TMG; access providers are not responsible for the information submitted through their services.

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European data protection law and minors – no legal certainty

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The fundamental right to the protection of personal data as enshrined in Art. 8 (1) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (PDF) as well as the right to informational self-determination, derived from Art. 2 (1) and 1(1) of the German Constitution are not exclusive right of adults. Also children’s personal data are protected by these fundamental rights and consequently by the European Data Protection Directive (Directive 95/46/EC) or the respective national laws.

But if it comes to the practical compliance for companies, for example if you want to develop an app for children, European data protection laws currently will leave providers alone with an answer to the question, when a consent by minors might serve as the legal basis for the processing of their data. Continue reading →