There is another judgment in the dispute between ARD and Bild-TV about copyrights. The Berlin Court of Appeal ruled that the use of ARD footage on the evening of the federal elections in September 2021 was in breach of copyright. This was confirmed by the Court of Appeal a decision of the district court of Berlin from December.
The ARD reports: “During the appeal hearing, the judges affirmed that both the adoption of the election forecasts and the extrapolations were illegal.” Both live takeovers on the television station of the Axel Springer media group took place without any prior consultation with ARD. Unlike the regional court, the higher court also declared the taking of an interview with CDU general secretary Paul Ziemiak to be inadmissible, according to ARD.
The court provides “inappropriate support,” criticizes Axel Springer
A spokesman for Axel Springer takes a completely different view of the decision: “We are pleased that the Berlin Court of Appeal has confirmed in its judgment that taking over an ARD interview with the then General Secretary of the CDU from Bild TV on election night does not constitute anti-competitive behavior. ” On the other hand, one cannot understand the view of the Court of Appeal that taking over the entire interview was disproportionate. We are considering filing an appeal.
It also says: With this decision, the court is doing “inappropriate support for a dominant exclusive first access” of the contribution-financed stations to politics and politicians, especially in view of the current debate on public broadcasting, especially on election evenings.
In addition to the ARD ZDF also led a legal dispute with Bild-TV. The district court of Cologne decided in November: The live transmission of parts of the election program Berlin round in the case of picture TV violated copyright law.