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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...

The Independent Television Commission has published on Wednesday 26 March a new revised Code of Programme Sponsorship which it hopes will widen the scope for sponsorship without the risk of sponsors "excessively diverting the editorial agenda for commercial purposes." The provisions of the new code have immediate effect. The main changes to the code are as follows: - Masthead programming (programming made or funded by a periodical, newspaper, book or informational software publishers which incorporates the name of the publisher in its title) to be permitted on all ITC licensed channels apart from...

As mentioned in IRIS 1996-10: 18, the Copyright and Rights of Performers Regulations 1996 (No 2967) now implements Council Directive 92/100/EEC of 19 November 1992 on rental right and lending right and on certain rights related to copyright in the field of intellectual property, Council Directive No 93/83/EEC of 27 September 1993 on the co-ordination of certain rules concerning copyright and rights related to copyright applicable to satellite broadcasting and cable retransmission and Article 4 (i.e. the "new publication right") of the Council Directive 93/98/EEC of 29 October 1993 harmonising the...