Podcast: The AI Act – The EU Commission’s plans for regulating artificial intelligence
The EU wants to create one of the world’s first laws for the comprehensive regulation of artificial intelligence. As early as April 2021, the EU Commission had therefore presented the first draft of a regulation. In December 2022, the Council of the EU has now published its position on this draft – with some explosive proposed changes regarding the use of AI for scientific research. In this episode of “Weggeforscht”, research assistants Justin Rennert and Klaus Palenberg provide information on the planned law and give an outlook on the further legislative process.
An article on this topic can be found in DFN-Infobrief Recht 1/2023 here.

(Deutsch) Datenrechtseminar bei der Volkswagen AG
(Deutsch) Stellenausschreibung: Studentische Hilfskräfte
Expertise ChatGPT and universities published
A comprehensive legal assessment of the fundamental legal issues surrounding the use of artificial intelligence (AI)-based writing tools at universities has been presented by the KI:edu.nrw project team of the Ruhr University Bochum led by Dr. Peter Salden in cooperation with Prof. Dr. Thomas Hoeren of the Westphalian Wilhelms University Münster (WWU). Among other things, the paper clarifies that software cannot have authorship over a text. Students who use the tool, however, can if they contribute a considerable amount of their own intellectual work to the texts – a difficult question that must be decided in each individual case. The expert report was commissioned by the Ministry of Culture and Science of North Rhine-Westphalia and is available online.
A related RUB press release can be found here: https://news.rub.de/presseinformationen/wissenschaft/2023-03-08-gutachten-ein-verbot-von-ki-schreibtools-hochschulen-ergibt-keinen-sinn
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
Podcast: Legal questions concerning Mastodon
After Elon Musk took over Twitter in October 2022, many users cancelled their accounts and migrated to other social networks. For many users, the search for an alternative microblogging service leads directly to the decentralised platform Mastodon. Mastodon is part of a larger network of decentralised networks called Fediverse.
In this episode of “Weggeforscht”, research assistants Nicolas John, Johannes Müller and Justin Rennert explain how Mastodon works and analyse who is liable for infringements.
The issue DFN-Infobrief Recht 2/2023 contains an article on this topic.

South Africa at BVB and in interview
Our South African guest researcher Gretchen Jansen was able to attend a BVB home match against harder to get an in-depth impression of the football team in Germany, and asked numerous questions about the ITM’s football law activities.
On 22 February, she then presented her activities in South Africa in a YouTube interview. More here
Podcast: What exactly was that about platform liability?
In August 2022, an episode entitled “Can platforms be perpetrators?” dealt with the copyright liability of platforms. In this new episode, research assistants Johanna Voget and Klaus Palenberg delve into the topic and explain the interplay between the case law of the ECJ and BGH on “Störer” and “Täterhaftung” (Breach of Duty of Care) and the DSM Directive, as well as the use of blocking as ultima ratio.
See also the article and the short message in the DFN-Infobrief Recht 12/2022 linked here.

A transcript of the episode can be found here.
Prof. Hoeren in Tiblisi
Professor Dr Thomas Hoeren was at a meeting of various partner universities at the First State University of Tbilisi from 6 to 10 February 2023 on behalf of the Rectorate. During his visit, he also met Vepkhvia Gvaramia, the Dean of Sokhumi State University, as well as Edisher Phutkaradze, the resident Professor of Criminal Law there. During the very instructive conversation, an exchange in research and teaching was considered in detail. Professor Hoeren also requested that the university’s research library be enriched by donations from the old holdings of his institute. This offer met with enthusiastic interest. Overall, it is noticeable in Tbilisi that both universities cultivate a special interest in German legal dogmatics and German jurisprudence and pass it on to their students. See more
Podcast: Ist der Widerruf einer E-Mail möglich?
Whether in the private or professional sphere, e-mails determine our everyday lives. However, although billions of e-mails are sent worldwide every day, the case law on this is not yet strongly developed in Germany.
This has now changed somewhat with the BGH’s decision on access to e-mails. In this episode, research assistants Johannes Müller and Nicolas John discuss the legal basis of postal access to offers and show the differences to sending e-mails based on the ruling. In doing so, they illustrate what effects legal basics have in everyday life and how this can ultimately affect the handling of emails in everyday business.
The article in DFN-Infobrief Recht 1/2023 mentioned in the following can be found here from page 5.
A transcript of the episode can be found here.