Search results : 78

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...

In 2004 Yleisradio Oy broadcast a current affairs programme focusing on some legal aspects of incest cases in the context of child custody disputes. Genuine cases were used as examples. In one case, A. appeared undisguised and using his own first name. He was introduced as a 55-year old driver from Helsinki and it was further announced that A. had been convicted and sentenced to imprisonment for sexual abuse of his two children, X. and Y., their gender and current age being mentioned. The judgment concerning A.’s conviction for sexual offences had been declared confidential by the Court of...

The Ministry of Justice is assessing the possibility of decriminalizing the use of open WiFi networks. According to a draft memorandum published last year, using a wireless internet connection without its owner’s permission would be allowed in such cases where the access point is not protected by password or the like. In particular, the memorandum assesses whether it is appropriate to deem unauthorised use a criminal offence. In compliance with Chapter 28, section 7 of the Penal Code of Finland, “[a] person who without authorisation uses the movable property or the non-movable machine or equipment...

On 30 June 2010 the Finnish Supreme Court upheld the decision of the Turku court of appeal on the Finreactor I case and fined the defendants for the unauthorised distribution and reproduction of copyrighted material on the Finreactor network. Finreactor was a peer to peer network used to share copyrighted files without permission from the copyright holders. The functioning of the system was based on simultaneous file-sharing between users who had downloaded the files to their own computers. The files in the network were available for downloading through torrent files, not immediately from the defendants’...

The adoption of the AVMS Directive 2007/65/EC (codified version 2010/13/EU) in Finland brought about some changes to the Finnish Copyright Act (404/1961). These changes came into force on 1 May 2010. They relate to amendments of sections 25b and 48 of the Copyright Act due to Article 3k of the AVMSD (2010/13/EU Art. 15), which provides for a ‘short reporting right’: Member states have an obligation to ensure that any broadcaster established in the EU has access to events of high interest to the public which are transmitted on an exclusive basis. This access is to be ensured for the purpose of transmitting...