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 2011-1: 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...
IRIS Plus 2010-3: Product Placement
There are areas of law that are so complex that legislators evidently find it hard to get to grips with them, and one of these areas is presumably product placement. The starting-point for the harmonisation of national solutions, which was the aim of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive...
IRIS Plus 2010-2: Digital Cinema
The European cinema of the near future will be digital. This much seems to be agreed upon by anyone who has a say in the matter. But the road there requires special efforts and may indeed be long and winding. This IRIS plus asks where we stand in the roll-out of digital cinema and it does so with...
IRIS Special 2010: The Regulatory Framework for Audiovisual Media Services in Russia
2009 saw a steady flow of information on the EU’s Audiovisual Media Services Directive and one does not need a crystal ball to predict the next wave of information that will spill over our desks in 2010, be it to tell us about transposition and implementation or about EU enforcement measures. The...
IRIS Plus 2010-1: Digital Television
Imagine turning on your television and not receiving any signal. For an increasing number of television viewers this could have been the case had they not re-equipped themselves for digital television. To mention only the early birds: Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Finland and Sweden completed the...
