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On 31 January 2006, the Minister of Justice ordered the Stichting de Thuiskopie (Private Copy Foundation - STK), to improve its financial administration and transparency if it is to maintain its responsibilities. The Foundation owes its existence to a provision in the Dutch Copyright Act and fulfils the role of collecting the money that must be paid for private copying and distributing it to rightsholders organisations. The latter oversee the final distribution to the individual rightsholders. Because of persistent disagreement between these organisations, relating to financial matters, as well...

On 1 February 2006, the Secretary of State for Culture, Medy van der Laan, announced that in the next three years an amount of EUR 600,000 will be made available for the production of videoclips. This initiative is part of the action programme “Culture and Economy”, which is meant to stimulate the creative industry with direct funding and by reducing existing obstacles. One of these obstacles is the gap between the creative sector and other sectors. Because of this gap the creative sector has almost no access to private funding and there exists a lack of entrepreneurial spirit. As a result, the...

On 26 January 2006, the Minister of Justice announced to the Dutch Parliament that all broadcasts emanating from the Lebanese channel Al Manar and of the Iraqi Sahar TV1 will be blocked. A spokesman for the Nationaal Coördinator Terrorismebestrijding (National Coordinator on the Fight against Terrorism) confirmed a study conducted on the matter warrants this decision as it would seem these channels disseminate hate speech. The Commissariaat voor de Media (Dutch Media Authority) also listed Islamic satellite broadcasts that can be received in the Netherlands and concluded that there are serious...

On November 25 2005, the Dutch Supreme Court delivered its judgment in the dispute between the Internet Service Provider (ISP) Lycos and Pessers. Pessers sells stamps using the website www.ebay.com. On a website carrying the title "Stop the fraud", which is hosted by Lycos, Pessers is called a swindler. Pessers’ attempt to contact the holder of the insulting website through an address mentioned on its webpage failed, but he also contacted Lycos requesting the website be removed and the name and address of its holder revealed. Lycos refused to provide those details. Pessers argued that Lycos should...

At the end of 2004, the Dutch authorities decided to continue their policy to stimulate the movie industry by offering tax advantages. This policy was endowed with a total of EUR 20 million per year. The measures were then successfully submitted for approval to the European Commission. The purpose of this policy is to stimulate the private sector to invest more money in movies for a wider audience. So far, the measures have proved efficient in reaching that goal. More of these movies were made and the market share of Dutch movies increased. The public at large showed more interest in Dutch movies...