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For the past five years, the Dutch film industry has benefited from the existence of special tax advantages for private investors who financially support films (see IRIS 1997-7: 15). This scheme was due to expire on 1 January 2004, but the government has decided on a one-year extension of the tax advantages. The European Commission has approved this prolongation. The extra costs that are involved in the extension of these film-support measures, are being covered by funds that are left over from 2002 and 2003.

On 19 December 2003, the Dutch Supreme Court decided on the appeal lodged against the decision of the Amsterdam Court of Appeal of 28 March 2002 in the case of Kazaa v. Buma/Stemra (see IRIS 2002-1:13  and IRIS 2002-5:12). Kazaa is the producer of one of the most popular file-sharing programs, used for the transfer of (often infringing) material via the Internet. The Amsterdam Court of Appeal had ruled that Kazaa could not be held liable for the offering of its file-sharing program, and this decision has not been overturned by the Supreme Court. However, since the Dutch Supreme Court does not perform...

The Dutch State Secretary for Education, Culture and Science has adopted a list of events that are of major importance for Dutch society. The legal basis for the list is Article 72 of the Mediawet (Media Act), the Act that transposes the "Television without Frontiers" Directive (Directive 89/552/EEC, amended by Directive 97/36/EC) into Dutch law. Article 72 transposes Article 3a of the Directive. The list of designated events is now incorporated in the Mediabesluit (Media Decree), which implements the Media Act. The purpose of the list is to ensure that the designated events will be available to...

On 2 May 2003, the Hoge Raad der Nederlanden (Dutch Supreme Court ­ HR) adopted a decision in the so-called Breekijzer case (see IRIS 2000-2: 7), in which it upheld a court decision to impose a ban on a broadcast and broadened the definition of "portrait" under the Auteurswet (Dutch Copyright Act ­ Aw). Breekijzer is a television programme that claims to help individual consumers in their disputes with companies or governments by using a "hold-up" method, in which the presenter visits companies, and films and interviews people representing the company without their prior consent. In this case,...

The Dutch first league football clubs are and remain the sole owners of the broadcasting rights to their home matches. The Dutch Supreme Court decided this in a judgment of 23 May 2003. The Dutch national football organization KNVB brought the matter in question before the Supreme Court claiming the existence of a joint ownership (for itself and the individual clubs) of the broadcasting rights to first league matches. KNVB argued that its organization of the league and the playing of matches in the league by the clubs justified the granting to itself and to the clubs of a right of intellectual...