Streaming: government statement is irrelevant according to Urmann

Streaming is legally unobjectionable, said the Federal Ministry of Justice and is now encountering opposition among lawyers. The law firm Urmann + Collegen, represented by lawyer Thomas Urmann, considers the statement of the government to be irrelevant, the statements are also “very thin.”


Heiko Maas, the Federal Minister of Justice, justified the legality of the viewing of copyrighted content, which he assumed, with the result that the computer used does not store a permanent copy. Instead, the computer deletes a cached file immediately after looking.


The Federal Minister of Justice concluded by concluding that the final decision-making power was at the European Court of Justice. The latter had to clarify whether the temporarily stored contents already constitute a copyright infringement or not. This is precisely where lawyer Thomas Urmann sees a point for the introduction. The statement by the government is of no relevance since "everything would be deported to Europe". This is also the opinion of Halina Wawzyniak (The Left), deputy chairman of the Bundestag's Legal Committee in the 17th electoral period. According to Wawzyniak, the government does not wish to create any legal clarification, but merely refers to the European Court of Justice.


The opinion of the Federal Minister of Justice is also the lawyer Christian Solmecke from the Cologne office Wildeburger Solmecke. Solmecke has already communicated his point of view more frequently, for example for our article on the legal situation of streaming in the context of sporting events. Solmecke also announced that he would lodge a complaint, as the Redtube warnings were unjustified.


As you can read in our report on the government statement on streaming, the government also argues with paragraph 44a and paragraph 53 of the Copyright Act, according to which a copying of protected content for private, non-commercial use is permitted. This is of little help to the warned, alleged Redtube users, as the European Court of Justice has to decide. We will keep you posted.