Search results : 121

Only a few weeks after the Strasbourg Court’s judgment in the case of Ashby Donald and others v. France (ECtHR 10 January 2013, see IRIS 2013-3/1), the Court has decided a new case of conflicting rights, opposing copyright as intellectual property right under Article 1 of the First Protocol and freedom of expression guaranteed by Article 10 of the Convention. The case concerned the complaint by two of the co-founders of The Pirate Bay, that their conviction for complicity to commit crimes in violation of copyright law had breached their freedom of expression and information. During 2005 and...

On 29 October 2012, Granskningsnämnden för radio och TV (the Swedish Broadcasting Commission - SBC) delivered four decisions regarding the application of Radio- och TV-lagen (The Radio- and Televisions Act - RTL) in relation to Web TV sections on newspapers’ websites. The cases concerned more or less similar circumstances for the websites of the newspapers Aftonbladet, Dagens Nyheter, Helsinborgs Dagblad and Norran. Firstly the SBC had to decide whether the RTL applied to a Web TV service as such. According to the travaux préparatoires of the RTL, which refer to the Audiovisual Media Services Directive...

On 3 May 2012 the Nordic Consumer Ombudsmen presented a Joint Position regarding marketing in social media. These kinds of guidelines are not legally binding, but are generally well regarded and relied upon by Swedish courts when determining good market practices. In the Joint Position, the Nordic Consumer Ombudsmen confirmed that Marknadsföringslagen (the Swedish Marketing Practices Act - MPA) is technology neutral and applies in full to social media. The Joint Position deals among other things with issues such as (i) unsolicited commercial messages, especially relating to Facebook as this was...

On 19 March 2012 Granskningsnämnden för radio och TV (the Swedish Broadcasting Commission - GRN) delivered a decision regarding the promotion of a commercial interest in an improper manner in a television program. The case concerned the application of sections 5:5, 17:5 and 19:4 of Radio- och TV-lagen (The Radio- and Televisions Act - RTL). The RTL is based inter alia on Directive 89/552/ECC, as amended by 97/36/EC. Section 5:5 of the RTL states that programs that are not advertising may not encourage the purchase or rental of goods or services or provide other marketable foreign elements, or highlight...

On 19 April 2012, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) delivered a judgment in the case of Bonnier Audio AB and others v. Perfect Communication Sweden AB. Bonnier Audio and others are publishing companies, which hold, inter alia, exclusive rights to the reproduction, publishing and distribution to the public of 27 audiobooks. The publishing companies claim that their exclusive rights are infringed by public distribution of the 27 audiobooks, without their consent, via an online filesharing programme. Based on Article 53c of the Swedish Copyright Act, the publishing companies applied...