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 2011-5: Why Discuss Network Neutrality?
The freedom to receive and impart information is guaranteed by Article 10 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of the Council of Europe. As is the case for exercising other fundamental freedoms, the mere recognition of the freedom of expression does not...
IRIS Plus 2011-4: Who Pays for Private Copying?
Triangular relationships are not only a challenge in human life but also in legal settings. In the case of private copying levies, the three points of the triangle are the creators of works, legally acting copyists and copyright pirates. Their interaction is to some extent, and possibly not suffi...
IRIS Plus 2011-3: Media Literacy
Continuous learning is a well established concept to guarantee that graduation from school or university does not mark the end of studying the subjects related to one’s profession. The more an area of knowledge is apt to change the bigger the need to stay on one’s toes. Training on the job is...
IRIS Plus 2011-2: An Insight into Selected Film Funding Systems
Film aid is not only designed to promote creativity, but it can also be remarkably creative itself in terms of the way it is organised. This is presumably linked to the fact that the definition of common film aid objectives, such as the protection and promotion of cultural diversity and identity...
IRIS Plus 2011-1: A Landmark for Mass Media in Russia
When on 15 June 2010 the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation adopted Resolution No. 16 “On the Judicial Practice Related to the Statute of the Russian Federation ‘On the Mass Media’”, the first international voice applauding this step was that of Dunja Mijatovic, the OSCE Representative on...
IRIS Special 2010: Digitisation and online exploitation of broadcasters' archives
IRIS Special 2010 - Digitisation and Online Exploitation of Broadcasters' Archives
On 5 November 2010, Commissioner Neelie Kroes spoke – not for the first time – on the opportunities that digitisation of cultural works offer to artists, the general public, the question of cultural diversity and Europe as such.1 Forward looking, she pointed out that the variety of copyright laws...
IRIS Plus 2010-6: Switchover to the Digital Dividend
Like Siamese twins, the switchover to digital television is inseparable from the spectrum liberated as a result of the process. The twin of the switchover is called digital dividend. If we look closer at these twins, we realize that they are non-identical, as far as at least one important point...
IRIS Plus 2010-5: New Services and Protection of Broadcasters in Copyright Law
A European Audiovisual Observatory publication had already investigated one aspect of the debate in autumn 2004. In IRIS plus “The Legal Protection of Broadcast Signals”, Lucie Guibault and Roy Melzer described in detail current provisions for the international protection of broadcast signals....
IRIS Plus 2010-4: Public Service Media: Money for Content
There have been many public statements on the funding of public service broadcasting and the expectations associated with it. As far as the European Union is concerned, mention might be made of the Communication from the Commission of 27 October 2009 on the application of state aid rules to...
