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The Spanish government (Consejo de Ministros) announced plans to comprehensively reform intellectual property law in a press release issued on 14 February 2014. The plans include the introduction of ancillary rights for newspaper publishers. The reforms package aims, firstly, to create a more effective framework for the activities of collecting societies. The system should also be made more transparent, according to the cabinet. Accounting and registration obligations will therefore be introduced. Remuneration models must, in future, be fair and non-discriminatory. Collecting societies will be...

The Audiencia Provincial Civil (Civil Provincial Court) of Madrid ruled on 31 January 2014 that YouTube was not liable for content uploaded by users that infringed copyright (case no. 11/2014). In the first instance, the Madrid Juzgado de lo Mercantil (Commercial Court) had, on 20 September 2010, rejected an action for damages against YouTube brought by TV broadcaster Telecinco, which had claimed that its copyright had been breached when its film material had been illegally posted on YouTube (see IRIS 2010-10/27). The broadcaster’s appeal against this decision has now been rejected by the Civil...

The Comisión Nacional de los Mercados y la Competencia (national commission for markets and competition - CNMC) was created by Act No. 3/2013, which was adopted on 4 June 2013. The commission combines functions involving the smooth running of the markets and sectors which until now have been controlled by various authorities with responsibility for the sectors of energy, the telecoms market, competition, the railways, the postal sector, airports, and the audiovisual media. These attributions have earned it the nickname of "super-regulato"r (superregulador). The Council of the CNMC is its decision-making...

The Spanish Constitutional Court (TC) has ruled on 16 December 2013, that the rights to personal image and honour of a disabled person should prevail over the right to information claimed by a television broadcaster in relation to a programme in which a disabled person was ridiculed. The programme, which was broadcast on Tele5 (Mediaset’s Spanish chain), invited a person with mental and physical disabilities, i.e. the plaintiff, to be interviewed. During the course of the interview, the plaintiff was asked personal questions of a sexual nature and was generally made fun of by the interviewer. Afterwards,...

On 19 June 2013, the European Commission concluded that a Spanish scheme to finance the digitisation and extension of the terrestrial television network in Spain was incompatible with EU state aid rules. The Spanish EUR 260 million scheme was initiated in 2005 to subsidise the transition to digital terrestrial television (DTT) in remote areas of Spain as well as to help finance the operation and maintenance of the DTT infrastructure. The subsidies were allocated exclusively to operators of terrestrial platforms. Alternative transmission platforms such as satellite, cable or the internet did not...