In the public interest
IRIS Plus 2009-6: The "Telecoms Review": New Impetus for Audiovisual Media?
This IRIS plus examines the review of the European telecommunications regulatory framework. The lead article is as multilayered as the theme itself. Market regulation, spectrum policy, new distribution methods, interoperability, network neutrality, investment protection, "must-carry" obligations,...
IRIS Plus 2009-4: The Public Service Remit and the New Media
This IRIS plus discusses the involvement of public service broadcasting in the new media. The author examines to what extent and under what conditions the public service remit covers such an involvement and where the limits to legitimate state funding currently lie. She therefore goes in some...
IRIS Special 2009: Creativity Comes at a Price
The signatories to the European Social Charter underline in its Preamble the fact that the standard of living and the social-well being of their populations are key to safeguarding human rights. In all likelihood they were similarly aware of how central this is for the prospering of their markets.
IRIS Plus 2009-2: Filtering the Internet for Copyrighted Content in Europe
One issue that has been frequently discussed in the IRIS plus series is the unauthorised supply of copyright protected works via the Internet. The resulting threat of copyright infringements could, at least partly, be prevented through the use of Internet filters, an option that forms the subject...
IRIS Special 2008 - Searching for Audiovisual Content
In 1989/90 Tim Berners-Lee developed the World Wide Web (WWW) for the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). Barely 20 years old, it has made an unprecedented impact on the way we deal with information. The WWW has Become a key resource for private life and business. To Each of us it...
IRIS Plus 2008-6: Progress in the Must-offer Debate? Exclusivity in Media and Communication
This IRIS plus looks at the various dimensions of exclusivity in media and communication. This IRIS plus considers the current debate on whether the obligation to transmit (must-carry) certain content should be replaced or at least supplemented by an obligation to offer such content (must-offer)....
IRIS Plus 2008-5: Audiovisual Media Services and the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive
Consumer interests take a prominent place in the law of audiovisual media services. This IRIS plus explains to what extent and why. It also tells its readers how the general legal principles relate to media-specific legislation.
IRIS Plus 2008-4: The Promotion of Cultural Diversity via New Media Technologies: An Introduction to the Challenges of Operationalisation
This IRIS plus presupposes that it is important to clarify potential meanings of cultural diversity and arising concepts if we wish to experience cultural diversity in the form of concrete results. The need for clarification becomes more pressing with a view to technological advances which...
IRIS Plus 2008-3: User-Generated Content Services and Copyright
This IRIS plus looks at the EU and US American copyright framework concerning UGC and how it has translated into case law. Suspecting that neither the pending revision of the relevant EU e-commerce Directive nor further court decisions might settle the matter entirely, the article also explores...
IRIS Plus 2008-2: Media Windows in Flux Challenges for Audiovisual Media Chronology
This IRIS plus does not deal with economic considerations, but with the legal framework on which an economic strategy, however it is chosen, must be built. The author begins by explaining how rules on media chronology have developed. On this basis, it is easy to see who defines the media windows...