Archive notice: This article was originally published on December 31, 2007. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
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Mobile-phone parking permitted: An amendment to the Road Traffic Regulations permits mobile-phone parking from 2008. Until now, motorists in urban parking zones had to obtain a written receipt from a machine and place it clearly visible in their vehicle. The new regulation was preceded by a successful two-year field trial in 15 cities. Motorists used this option more than 50,000 times per month, and municipalities benefited from lower costs. As a rule, mobile-phone parkers must register once on the Internet – including their mobile number, bank details and licence plate. If they later want to park their car, they call a service number from their mobile phone at the beginning and end of the parking period. The fees are debited from the account monthly, calculated to the minute. The new procedure will first be introduced in the cities of Cologne and Hamburg from February. The cities of Potsdam will follow in March and Berlin in April 2008. More information at http://www.mobil-parken.de.
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Data retention: From 2008, telecommunications providers are obliged to store the connection data of all telephone calls on fixed and mobile networks for six months. The conversations themselves are not stored, but rather the telephone number, duration of the call and the location data of mobile phones. The data is intended to serve investigative authorities in the prevention and prosecution of criminal offences. Companies will incur one-off costs of 75 million euros to establish the corresponding infrastructure and ongoing costs in the double-digit millions per year. BITKOM is calling for providers to be compensated for these services. Further storage obligations for e-mail communications, access to websites and Internet telephony will follow from 2009.
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Copyright: On January 1, 2008, the new copyright law, which was discussed at length and controversially, comes into force. One focus is the revision of the levy system for recording devices such as DVD recorders and storage media such as blank CDs. The levies serve as compensation for the permitted private copying of music, texts and other data. The levies are collected by the collecting societies and distributed to the authors after internal administrative expenses have been deducted. Until now, the levies for classic IT devices and storage media were set out in law. In future, collecting societies and industry associations must negotiate them. The levies are based on the actual use of the device for copying purposes and must be economically reasonable.
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Mobile-phone blockers: In 2008, several federal states are introducing legal regulations that allow judicial authorities to use so so-called mobile communications blockers in prisons. The devices prevent unauthorized mobile-phone calls by inmates. The mobile communications blockers generate an interference signal that overlays the signals of mobile networks and thus produces an artificial dead zone. The problem is that a pinpoint delineation of the interference fields is technically hardly possible and impairment of mobile communications outside the prison grounds must be expected. BITKOM has therefore criticized the plans.
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Corporate tax reform: With effect from January 1, 2008, the legislature is reducing tax rates for companies from an average of 38.6 percent to 29.8 percent. This moves Germany a good distance forward in terms of nominal tax burden in the international location comparison. However, the lower tax rates are bought with a broadening of the tax assessment base. The ICT industry is affected above all by the reduction of the amount limit for immediate depreciation of low-value assets to 150 euros and the pro-rata addition of licence fees to trade tax – for example for software.
