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On 30 July 2009, the Amsterdam District Court sentenced The Pirate Bay by means of a default judgment to make its websites inaccessible to Internet users in the Netherlands, because The Pirate Bay was found to infringe the intellectual property rights of Dutch rightsholders, represented by the Bescherming Rechten Entertainment Industrie Nederland ((Protection Rights Entertainment Industry Netherlands - BREIN). The Pirate Bay is a website registered in Sweden on which BitTorrents are provided. These torrents enable the exchange of files between computers that are connected to the Internet and which...

The trade organisation Vecai (now renamed NLkabel) represents five cable operators. Vecai et al. were called upon to defend themselves against legal claims by the collecting societies Norma and Irda. Norma and Irda represent performing artists in the sense of the Wet op de naburige Rechten (Related Rights Act - WNR): Norma and Irda are allowed to represent their performers in their right to authorise the unaltered and unabridged re-broadcasting by a cable broadcasting installation of a performance or phonogram or a reproduction thereof. Their claim is that the cable operators are re-broadcasting...

On 10 February 2009, the European Commission (EC) cleared the proposal on broadcasting market regulation by the Dutch regulator Onafhankelijke Post en Telecommunicatie Autoriteit (OPTA). As a result, OPTA can now impose several regulatory obligations on the four largest cable operators in the Netherlands, Ziggo, UPC, Delta and CAIW, who currently hold dominant positions in Dutch broadcasting markets. First of all, in order to enhance competition, UPC and Ziggo are now obliged to resell their analogue cable network based on regulated prices to other market parties. This will enable these parties...

On 21 January 2009, the Amsterdam Court of Appeal ordered the criminal prosecution of Dutch MP Geert Wilders of the Partij voor de Vrijheid (the Party of Liberty - PVV) for the incitement to hatred and discrimination against, as well as the insult of a group of people on the ground of their religion, penalized in Articles 137d and 137c respectively of the Dutch penal code. The basis for the prosecution were Wilders’ statements about Islam and Muslims in his film Fitna, which was distributed over the Internet, and in several interviews and columns published in national newspapers and online. The...

On 1 January 2009, the Mediawet 2008 (Media Act 2008) came into effect in the Netherlands, replacing the old Mediawet (Media Act). Like its predecessor, the purpose of the new Act is to provide a legal basis for Dutch media policy. The scope of media policy in the Netherlands includes, inter alia, the financing and regulation of national public service broadcasting, the regulation of commercial radio and television and the broadcast of events of major importance for Dutch society. This latter category of events is listed in the accompanying Mediabesuit 2008 (Media Decree 2008). Two reasons can...