Search results : 237

On 22 December 1999, the regional criminal court in Brussels applied for the first time the act of 30 July 1981 that makes it a criminal offence to include racist or xenophobic comments in texts circulated on the Internet. W.E., a civil servant, was held to be the person behind a number of manifestly racist messages circulating within a particular newsgroup (soc.culture. belgium). The court found that analysis of these messages clearly indicated the deliberate intention by the person writing them to encourage segregation, hate or violence in respect of the Moroccan and African communities in Belgium,...

By an order delivered on 17 June 1999, the presiding judge at the Court of First Instance in Brussels, sitting in urgent matters, ordered TVI, the private television channel of the French-speaking Community to pay SABAM, the company which manages royalties, the provisional sum of Belgian franc (BEF) 100 million per annum for the years 1997, 1998 and 1999, less the amounts actually paid in respect of these three years. There has been a dispute since 1997 concerning the annual licence fees to be paid by TVI for authorisation to use all the works in the SABAM repertoire for television broadcasting...

On 15 May 1999 a new ministerial circular on relations between the media and the law came into force. The circular defines the procedure and the general principles for information which may be transmitted to the press by the courts and the police during the preparatory investigation stage. Under the current legal provisions contained in the act of 12 March 1998, which were designed to improve the criminal procedure at the information and investigation stage, communication to the press of information concerning preparatory investigations is the responsibility of the Crown Prosecutor after consultation...

In a decision on 10 November 1998, the court of appeal in Brussels considered the concept of «the producer». On 8 May 1996, Kladaradatsch! and the Dutch group First Floor Features (FFF) concluded a co-production agreement for the production of a full-length film entitled "Karakter". In serious disagreement as to the exploitation and distribution of the film (the rights for which had been made over by FFF to Walt Disney Studios Belgium), Kladaradatsch! decided to take FFF to court. It claimed violation of its exclusive exploitation rights and of its exclusive distribution rights over the work....

On 28 May 1999 a collaboration protocol came into force between ISPA Belgium (Internet Service Providers Association) and the Ministers for Telecommunications and Justice. The aim of the protocol is to help stamp out illegal acts on The Internet, particularly certain criminal offences (child pornography, racism and infringements of gambling legislation). Although offences committed via The Internet may be sanctioned on the basis of the provisions of the Criminal Code and specific criminal legislation, there are nevertheless difficulties in obtaining evidence concerning such infringements (because...