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On 21 January 1997, the Government of the Flemish Community of Belgium sent to the Flemish Parliament a draft Decree to turn the Flemish public broadcaster (BRTN) into a limited liability company under public law together with an Explanatory Memorandum of more than 100 pages. The fact that BRTN is to become a limited liability company `under public law' implies that, in principle, the general company law provisions will apply to it, unless specific provisions laid down by law, derogate from this principle, which will be the case where the general provisions would affect BRTN's public mission....

Electronic rights are the rights needed to exploit a copyrighted work in a digital environment. In the Copyright Acts of several EU Member States, the author of a work is protected against a too broad transfer of rights. The consequence of this is that there can be uncertainty about who owns the electronic rights if earlier copyrights are granted. Are the rights on future forms of exploitation, like the electronic exploitation, included in the grant of rights? A Belgium court decided in such a matter. In Belgium newspaper publishers started an on-line service called `Central Station' in which...

On 17 October 1996, Mr Eric Van Rompuy, the Minister of the Flemish Community of Belgium who is responsible for media policies, send to the Flemish Parliament an informative document on the present state of affairs of media policies in the Flemish Community and on the policy priorities for 1997. The document is a follow-up to his policy letter of 26 October 1995 in which he set out the priorities of media policies for the period 1995-1999 (see IRIS 1996-1: 13). According to Mr Van Rompuy, contrary to what has been reported in the press, the European Commission did not yet start the infringement...

In IRIS 1996-5: 7-10 we published an overview of the state of Signatures and Ratifications of European Conventions and other international treaties that are relevant to the audiovisual sector. The listing of when States became Party to the Convention relating to the distribution of programme-carrying signals transmitted by satellite (printed on page 8) is, however, not correct. Accidentily it reproduces the dates on which States became Party to the Berne Convention for the protection of copyright of literary and artistic works (as printed on page 7). The correct date on which States became Party...

Early in 1995, TF1 successfully applied to the Tribunal de Commerce (the Commercial Court) in Brussels for an interim order recognising its right to remain on the Flemish Community's cable networks, which had threatened to remove it unless it agreed to pay the copyright fees due on retransmission itself. Previously, these had been covered from the overall sum paid by subscribers under the general "cable contract". The appeal against this order is still pending, but the Tribunal de Commerce confirmed it in a judgment on the merits given on 12 January 1996, in which it forbade the cable networks...