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On 28 March 2014, the Dutch Supreme Court handed down its judgment in the case of NORMA and others v. NLKabel and others. NORMA, a collective management organisation for neighbouring rights of performers, claimed that the cable operators, represented by NLKabel, needed permission from the performers to transmit the television programmes over cable to their subscribers. Pursuant to the Dutch Neighbouring Rights Act, the retransmission rights of performers in their performances are enforced by a collective management organisation. In the present case, NORMA acted on behalf of the performers. In its...

On 29 January 2014, the District Court of The Hague found that Dutch law is not allowed to force cable operators to offer their channel packages for sale to third parties. The Court found article 6.14a of the Dutch Media Act (MA) and article 6a.21a of the Dutch Telecommunications Act (TA) to be incompatible with the new European regulatory framework for electronic communications. The new regulatory framework aims to provide a harmonised structure for the regulation of electronic communication services and networks. Following the ruling of the European Court of Justice of 7 November 2013, three...

On 28 January 2014, the Court of Appeal in The Hague ruled that two internet service providers XS4ALL and Ziggo do not have to block their subscribers from accessing The Pirate Bay website. BREIN, the Dutch association for the protection of the rights of the entertainment industry, requested the District Court to issue an injunction to block subscribers to XS4ALL and Ziggo from accessing The Pirate Bay website. The purpose of the injunction was to stop copyright infringements, based on Article 26d of the Copyright Act and Article 15e of the Neighbouring Rights Act. Under these Articles, the Court...

In his opinion of 9 January 2014, the Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), in Case C-435/12, considered whether reproductions from unlawful sources fall within the private copying exception of Directive 2001/29/EC (Copyright Directive). A related question considered by the Advocate General, is whether it is in line with the Copyright Directive to calculate the private copying levy based on reproductions from both lawful as well as unlawful sources. According to Article 5(2) subsection (b) of the Copyright Directive, member states can exclude private copying for...

On 4 December 2013, the District Court in Amsterdam ruled that the broadcasting of a programme by Dutch television show ‘Undercover in Nederland’ (Undercover in the Netherlands), which detailed the dangers of finding sperm donors on the Internet, fell within the responsibility of the media to spread information and ideas of public interest and to execute its vital role of public watchdog. The Court further stated that there was no need to consider the question of whether women who use the Internet to find sperm donors could be seen as a vulnerable group of “victims” that need protection, since...