This article was produced by Olswang LLP, which joined with CMS on 1 May 2017.
- European Court of Justice decision on balancing the interests of parody vs. copyright
- Online hotel rating portal HolidayCheck submits complaint against Google to EU Commission
- Netflix launches in Germany
- Half-yearly admission figures for German movie theatres: German films succeed, overall significant decrease in admissions and revenues
European Court of Justice decision on balancing the interests of parody vs. copyright
The ECJ held on 3 September that if a parody conveys a discriminatory message, the person holding rights in the parodied work may demand that the work not be associated with such message. A Belgian politician had used a drawing of the "Suske en Wiske" - known in English as "Spike and Suzy" - comic books for a parody showing the mayor of the city Ghent throwing money to people wearing veils and people of colour. The heirs of the comic's author brought an action for infringement of copyright against the politician, who claimed that the drawing constituted a political caricature and, thus, a parody, meaning it could use copyrighted works without the author's consent under the exception established by the copyright directive.
The ECJ noted that the essential characteristics of parody are to evoke an existing work while being noticeably different from it, and to constitute an expression of humour or mockery, but that a parody need not display an original character of its own. The court further stated that the application of the exception for parody established by the directive must strike a fair balance between the interests of the rights holder and the freedom of expression of the person wishing to rely on the exception. In that context, the Court declared that if a parody conveys a discriminatory message (for example, by replacing the original characters with people wearing veils and people of colour), the rights holder of the work parodied has a legitimate interest in ensuring that their work is not associated with such message. It is now for the Belgian court to determine whether the application of the exception for parody does strike a fair balance between the differing interests.
Online hotel rating portal HolidayCheck submits complaint against Google to EU Commission
On August 28, online hotel rating portal HolidayCheck announced that it has submitted a complaint to the EU Commission regarding Google's search engine practices. In demanding the Commission to find Google guilty of abusing its dominant position in the online search market to promote its own travel services such as flight-search, HolidayCheck joins a long list of complainants.
The Commission launched an official investigation into Google`s conduct relating to search in 2010. Google has already submitted three sets of commitment proposals to bring an end to the investigation by way of a "commitments decision" rather than a prohibition. After a very negative feedback from interested parties on the latest set of commitments, EU Competition Commissioner Joaquín Almunia has requested further concessions from Google. The Commission will now have to decide whether to include HolidayCheck`s complaint into the pending investigation or to analyse it separately.
Netflix launches in Germany
Since 16 September, online video portal Netflix went live in Germany as part of a wider rollout of the platform in Europe. Besides the customary free one-month trial period, Netflix offers flexible pricing options with rates starting at EUR 7.99 / month for SD only video streaming, EUR 8.99 / month for streaming in HD and on two devices. Ultra HD video streams and the use of up to four devices are offered at EUR 11.99 monthly. Netflix is available on computers, smartphones, tablets, smart TVs, and the newer generations of gaming consoles by Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo. Whilst pricing was anticipated by and is in the range of competitors, Netflix cooperation with Deutsche Telekom, with the service also being available on set top boxes of Telekom Service Entertain was seen as a clear sign of confidence and ambition to secure a prominent position in the German market.
In terms of their product offering, some Netflix content has already been licensed to German competitors, though on a non exclusive basis, however, Netflix aims to stand out with productions such as "Orange is the New Black". Other series titles available in Germany exclusively from Netflix will include "Fargo", "From Dusk Till Dawn" and "Penny Dreadful". Some prominent German productions that can be streamed via Netflix, albeit not exclusively, include comedy series "Stromberg" and "Pastewka" and films such as Til Schweiger's "Keinohrhasen". Netflix is also said to be introducing simultaneous SVOD releases by making Ang Lee's sequel of the "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" available to stream on the film's release date in theatres.
Half-yearly admission figures for German movie theatres: German films succeed, overall significant decrease in admissions and revenues
According to the German Federal Film Fund's half-yearly figures released on August 27, in the first half of 2014 German films achieved a market share of 31.6%, the best results since 2008. From January through June 2014 in total 17.6 million admissions were bought for German films, the most successful film also being a German production "Der Medicus", had approximately 2.6 million admissions. Among the top 10 of admissions were also German films such as "Vaterfreuden" (2.3 million), "Fack Ju, Göhte" (1.5 million) and "Stromberg - Der Film"(1.3 million). However, despite the success of German films, the overall results stayed below expectations. In the year of the Soccer World Cup admissions decreased to 56.3 million, which is 6.4 million less than during the same period 2013 (a decrease of 10.2%). Revenues decreased to EUR 450.6 million (-9.2%) compared to the first half of 2013.
In total, 105 German productions and 72 US productions were theatrically released in Germany. The average admission price increased by EUR 0.09 to EUR 8.01, for the first time crossing the eight Euro threshold.
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