Search results : 244

On 27 April 2011 the first umbrella agreement between the Association of Bulgarian Broadcasting Operators (ABBRO) and the collecting society of the phonogram producers, music video producers and music performers, PROPHON, was signed. It is a result of two-year negotiations during which significant numbers of the broadcasters did not pay the due remuneration for broadcasting phonograms and music videos in their programmes. The agreement covers only the use of the PROPHON repertoire by radio broadcasters during 2009 and 2010, but it is a very symbolic act. It is expected that further negotiations...

The audit performed by the National Audit Office on the 2009 activities of the Bulgarian National Television has confirmed that there were no rules or criteria for the management of and reporting on the amounts collected by the donation initiative called “Bulgarian Christmas”. For the first time in its nine-year existence, the name of the “Bulgarian Christmas” initiative is mentioned in a report of a supervising body. The audit report of the National Audit Office was initiated by the new management of the Bulgarian National Television immediately after it was elected by the Council for Electronic...

On 25 March 2011 amendments to the Закон за авторското право и сродните му права (Bulgarian Copyright and Related Rights Act - ЗАПСП) entered into force. These are the result of long and heated discussions between the author of the bill, the Ministry of culture through the Council of Ministers, on the one side, the Members of Parliament on another side and representatives of users and rightholders on the third side (see IRIS 2010-10/15). In general, the amendments concern many different topics but those presented as being the most important were a new system of remuneration for private copying...

On 31 March 2011, the Constitutional Court declared unconstitutional a provision of the Film Industry Act governing the financing of the film industry by the state. The request for constitutional review of para. 83 of the State Budget Act for 2011 which amended Art. 17 of the Film Industry Act was filed by a group of 56 members of the National Assembly. In their request, the claimants stated that para. 83 of the Act on the State Budget for 2011 does not constitute a legal norm, but rather represents a general wish. In addition, the applicability of the said provision is left to the subjective discretion...

The European Commission has finished the preliminary analysis of the measures implementing the Audiovisual Media Services (AVMS) Directive into national law notified by 16 Member States: Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Malta, the Netherlands, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Slovakia and the United Kingdom. Subsequently, the European Commission has sent fact-finding letters to these states inquiring about these implementing measures. The Commission is thus seeking to ensure that all provisions of the AVMS Directive have been correctly transposed into...