Search results : 187

The Tribunal administratif fédéral (Federal Administrative Tribunal - TAF) has defined the notion of what constitutes a “Swiss film” for the purposes of the Loi fédérale sur la culture et la production cinématographiques (Cinema Law - LCin). Recognition of an audiovisual work as a “Swiss film” means that it has access to the Federal aid provided for in the Cinema Act. According to Article 2 (2) of the Act, the term “Swiss film” is deemed to mean a film (a) that has been produced in the main by an author who has Swiss nationality or is domiciled in Switzerland, (b) that has been produced by a natural...

Swisscom, the leading telecom company in Switzerland, does indeed occupy a dominant position on the market for broadband services. The Federal Administrative Tribunal ( Tribunal Administratif Fédéral - TAF) confirmed the fact in a decision that henceforth obliges Swisscom to ensure that its competitors have regulated access to all its broadband land lines in order to enable them to deploy their own installations. Under Article 11 (1) of the Telecommunications Act ( Loi sur les Télécommunications - LTC), those suppliers of telecommunications services that occupy a dominant position on the market...

The company Métropole Télévision operates the French television channel M6. Although this is aimed at the French public, it is possible to receive its signal, broadcast by satellite and terrestrially, in Switzerland as a result of natural overspill. Since January 2002, Métropole Télévision has been broadcasting a second signal, separate from the one used for broadcasting in France. This second signal, distributed in Switzerland by a number of cable distributors, uses all the programming broadcast by M6 in France, but incorporates advertising messages directed specifically at viewers in the French-speaking...

On 26 November 2008, the Swiss Federal Council referred to the Parliament the additional message on Switzerland’s participation in the European Union’s MEDIA Programme. The Swiss Confederation and the EU had signed an agreement on 11 October 2007 enabling Switzerland to continue to participate in the MEDIA Programme. In exchange for this agreement, however, the EU had demanded that Switzerland fully incorporate into its national legislation the country of origin principle arising from the Community’s “Audiovisual Media Services” Directive (AVMSD). This requirement would mean that it would no longer...

The aim of the partial revision of the national legislation on copyright and neighbouring rights (LDA) which came into force on 1 July 2008 is to adapt copyright to the new communication and digital transmission technologies, and more particularly to reinforce the fight against piracy (see IRIS 2006-5: 9). By making it easier to produce and circulate copies, the digital environment increases the vulnerability of works protected by copyright. These new arrangements transpose into Swiss law the requirements of the Performances and Phonograms Treaty (PPT) of the World Intellectual Property Organisation...