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In December 2002, the Spanish authorities approved several provisions that partially amend some existing norms relating to the country's media law. On 30 December 2002, the Spanish Parliament approved the Ley de Medidas fiscales, administrativas y del orden social (Act 53/2002 on Taxation, Administrative Provisions and Social Affairs). An Act on taxation, administrative provisions and social affairs ("Special Measures Act") is approved each year, together with the Budget Act. The main object of the Special Measures Act is to introduce amendments to existing provisions, thus acting as a "container"...

A Catalan association for the protection of the Spanish language recently appealed to the Spanish Supreme Court, asking that it be declared unconstitutional that the Catalan public television broadcasts almost all of its programmes in Catalan. The appellant argued that Spanish is the official language in all of the national territory and that those persons living in Catalonia who do not speak Catalan were being discriminated against by the Catalan Administration. The Supreme Court dismissed this appeal, stressing that most of the television channels that are received in Catalonia are broadcast...

In July 2002, the Spanish Parliament approved Act 34/2002 on Information Society Services and E-Commerce. By means of this new Act, which will come into force in October 2002, the Spanish authorities have incorporated EC Directive 2000/31 ("Directive on electronic commerce") into Spanish law. This new Act applies to "information society services" ("IS services"), which the Annex to the Act defines as those provided for remuneration (even if they are free for the recipient), at a distance, electronically and at the individual request of the user. Services provided by voice telephony, fax, telex,...

- Canal Satélite Digital, whose main shareholder is Sogecable, a company jointly controlled by Canal Plus (a subsidiary of Vivendi Universal) and PRISA (the main Spanish multimedia group). Canal Satélite Digital has 1.2 million subscribers. Moreover, Sogecable operates an analogue terrestrial pay-TV channel, which has approx. 800,000 subscribers. - Vía Digital, whose main shareholder is the Spanish telecommunications incumbent, Telefonica (48%). Vía Digital has approx. 800,000 subscribers. In May 2002, Sogecable and Vía Digital reached an agreement to merge. According to this agreement, the former...

On 2 January 2002, a Spanish Court of First Instance held that Traxdata, a company which manufactures and distributes audio and data CD-R (CD-Recordable), had to pay a levy to the Sociedad General de Autores y Editores (SGAE), a copyright management society which administers the rights relating to music and audiovisual authors and editors. According to Spanish copyright law, in certain cases a levy on the distribution and selling of storage means can be collected in order to compensate the music industry for losses due to copying. It was widely accepted that this levy was due in the case of audio...