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The Committee of National Heritage of the House of Commons, chaired by Gerald Kaufman, has recently published its report on the BBC and the Future of Broadcasting, Since its previous report on the BBC, three years ago, changes in electronic communication have taken and are taking place. In the light of these transformations the Committee examined the prospects of the BBC, surveyed both what the broadcasters are doing and how the framework of regulation is changing to accommodate. One of the recommendations of the report is dealing with the Board of Governors, the watchdogs of the BBC's integrity...

In IRIS 1996-7: 10 we reported that in March 1996, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) issued a further Consultative Document on the protection of programme formats. In a possible amendment of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 annexed to the Consultative Document, it was proposed to add some paragraphs to Section 17 (infringement of copyright by copying). As a result copyright on a copyright protected work would be infringed when the underlying format of the work would be copied in a new radio or television programme. In November 1996 the DTI indicated to the interested parties...

The UK National Heritage Secretary (the minister responsible for broadcasting matters) announced on March 5 that she is considering making an order to ban the satellite TV channel `Satisfaction Club'. She had received notification from the Independent Television Commission that it was a pornographic service which the Commission considered unacceptable, and in accordance with the EC Broadcasting Directive has notified the broadcaster, the Italian authorities and the European Commission that the service was considered to have manifestly, seriously and gravely infringed the Directive's provisions...

The UK Government intends to bring forward legislation lifting a ban on (domestic and foreign) Trusted Third Parties (that do not require escrow of private keys in the first session of a new Parliament following the General Election in May 1997. This would follow a recent consultation paper on `Licensing of Trusted Third Parties for the Provision of Encryption Services' issued by the UK Department of Trade and Industry on 19th March 1997. Comments are invited by the UK Government on the issues set out in this consultation paper by Friday 30 May 1997. The proposals involve licensing TTPs who offer...

The Office of Telecommunications (OFTEL), responsible in the UK for regulating conditional access services for digital television, has published at the end of March its guidelines. These are the result of consultations began in last year (see IRIS Vol. III, No 1)). The regulations governing the provision of conditional access services were laid before Parliament in December 1996 and the Telecommunications Act class licence for conditional access services was issued by the Department of Trade and Industry. The regulations and licences require OFTEL to ensure that control of conditional access technology...