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KPN, a Dutch landline and mobile telecommunications company, has been granted an exemption from the must-carry rules with regard to its new television service. The telecom provider developed a new service in the form of a mobile application that serves a package with 18 linear television channels, catch-up television, on-demand-content, and recording options. A subscriber pays an all-inclusive fee per month to use the service (called “Play”). KPN offers Play as an over-the-top (OTT) service, meaning that the service is available over the open Internet using Internet access from any Internet service...

On 25 November 2015, the District Court of North-Netherlands ruled on a case about the lawfulness of a television programme in which negative statements about a psychiatrist were made. It decided that the broadcaster did not act unlawfully, but that one of the interviewees - an ex-colleague of the psychiatrist - did make an unlawful allegation. The broadcaster EO aired an episode of a programme in which the malpractice of a psychiatric facility was investigated, and more specifically the conduct of the claimant in his capacity as leading psychiatrist. Several interviewees gave negative accounts...

On 20 September 20 2015, the District Court of Amsterdam denied attempts by two plaintiffs to prevent the broadcasting of secretly recorded audiovisual materials. The first plaintiff, Volkert van der Graaf, had been conditionally released from prison, having been sentenced to 18 years after he murdered the Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn in 2002. Graaf had been released six years early from prison on, amongst others, the condition that he would refrain from contact with the media. In the secretly recorded footage at issue in this case, Graaf was recorded stating that he himself contacted a photographer...

On 5 October 2015, the Hague District Court ruled in Stichting BREIN v Google that Google has to provide the contact details of a user that illegally traded in e-books on Google Play. According to the Dutch court, the protection of intellectual property rights of the publishers outweighs the user’s right to freedom of speech and Google’s right to conduct a business. The user offered e-books far below the regular price under the name of Flamenca Hollanda on Google Play Books. On behalf of the Dutch publishers, Stichting BREIN - an anti-piracy foundation - requested Google to take down the illegal...

In its judgment of 13 November 2015, the Dutch Supreme Court asked two preliminary questions to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), one of which concerning the “communication to the public”-criterion stated in Article 3 paragraph 1 of the EU’s Copyright Directive. The questions were formed in relation to pending proceedings between Stichting BREIN, a Dutch collective rights management organisation, and Ziggo and XS4ALL, two Dutch internet service providers (ISPs). At first instance, Stichting BREIN had asked for an order directed at the ISPs, to block not only all IP addresses currently...