Legal
The Department for Legal Information analyses key legal issues linked to the audiovisual sector and reports on major legal developments and ground breaking cases which affect media legislation in Europe.
IRIS Plus 2014-3: Enabling Access to the Media for All
When it comes to barriers to accessing information and to culture for people with disabilities, the concept becomes immediately multifaceted. Depending on how content as such is conceived, whether it is a library with stairs before an entrance door or an immaterial file requiring the command of...
IRIS Plus 2014-2: Media in the Courtroom
The model of separation of powers (legislature, executive and judiciary) in its different declinations forms the basis for the political structure of most democratic states in the world. Not formally one of these powers, the press is nevertheless often called “the Fourth Estate” or “the fourth...
IRIS Plus 2014-1: The new Cinema Communication
Younger generations nowadays take the existence of the European Union for granted. Today’s European adolescents were born into the European Union, so to speak, but it is a very recent development if we take into consideration the history of Europe as a whole. It is an organisation that was not...
IRIS Plus 2013-6: How Private is Personal Data?
There is an uneasy relationship between copyright and data protection, the main reason being that the legal rules governing both these areas are based on a potentially conflicting idea. There is a clash of objectives between copyright law and data protection law, but this does not immediately...
IRIS Special 2014 - Video on Demand and the Promotion of European Works
Europe has a strong tradition of promoting European works, which generally speaking we Europeans regard as an important part of our culture and which we are traditionally ready to defend against blockbusters and to foster in the name of cultural diversity. The promotion of European works is at...
IRIS Special 2013: Video on Demand and the Promotion of European Works
This IRIS Special adds information on different schemes to promote European works in on-demand services and related legal challenges.
IRIS Plus 2013-5: Audiovisual Heritage 2.0
The destruction of the Library of Alexandria is a symbol of knowledge lost forever. Although the facts about this historical event are not entirely clear, the myth of a centralised source of knowledge ravaged by the flames remains in the collective conscience as a reminder of the fragility of...
IRIS Plus 2013-4: What Is an On-demand Service?
Few songwriters have captured the presentiment of change as Bob Dylan in his song "The Times They Are A-Changin'". Although written in a very particular period of the twentieth Century, its message is universal and therefore can be applied to virtually any moment in time. Indeed, the fight...
IRIS Plus 2013-3: Converged Media: Same Content, Different Laws?
Convergence is no longer a future vision but can be experienced in the here and now. At least, this is true for those among us who possess a smart TV and manage to use its full technical potential. At the same time, media professionals never tire of pointing to the fact (and to supporting...
IRIS Plus 2013-2: Open Journalism
Publish and be damned? The Duke of Wellington's famous phrase could be used to describe the challenges for regulators dealing with the complex legal issues surrounding open journalism. In the age of Internet and the smart phone, we are ALL potentially journalists capable of generating copy, sound...
