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On 2 March 2010, the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) made public its latest reports on Albania, Austria, Estonia and the United Kingdom, adopted in the fourth round of its monitoring of the laws, policies and practices to combat racism in the Member States of the Council of Europe (for commentary on earlier reports, see IRIS 2009-10: 0/109, IRIS 2009-8: 5, IRIS 2009-5: 4, IRIS 2008-4: 6, IRIS 2006-6: 4 and IRIS 2005-7: 3). A number of key recommendations dealing with the (audiovisual) media and/or the Internet can be distilled from relevant sections of these reports. The...

The consultation carried out by the UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport on product placement (see IRIS 2010-1: 1/25) has been completed and the Government has decided to permit product placement, subject to restrictions. According to the minister, such conditional approval will permit benefits to commercial television companies and programme makers through extra sources of finance whilst taking account of legitimate concerns. Product placement will be permitted in the four categories of programme set out in the Audiovisual Media Services Directive: cinematographic works, films and series...

In 1976, Lucas Films invited Andrew Ainsworth to create the helmet and armour to be worn by the Stormtrooper characters in the Star Wars films. Lucas Films gave Mr Ainsworth two drawings of the Stormtroopers and a prototype helmet. Moulds were made to produce the helmets and the armour. The moulds were kept and in 2004 Ainsworth set up a website to sell helmets and armour made using the moulds. Most of the sales were made in the USA, although Ainsworth was resident in the UK. Lucas Films sued for infringement of copyright in California. They won the action, were awarded $10 million and now sought...

In the first trial of its kind in the UK, Alan Ellis, the owner of www.oink.me.uk (later, www.oink.cd) was found not guilty, by a unanimous jury verdict at Teesside Crown Court, notwithstanding the fact that “[t]he Court of Appeal has twice ruled that complicated matters of copyright should not be heard in the crown court but the in Chancery Division of the High Court.” The charge was “conspiring with others unknown to defraud such persons as have an interest in musical works, sound recordings and in the rights and performance of music.” As the Judge, Tony Briggs, said, “Put very simply it is suggested...

The BBC is mentioned in the Freedom of Information Act 2000, which provides a right of access to official information. However, it is only covered in relation to information held “for purposes other than those of journalism, art or literature.” The High Court has clarified the meaning of this position, following other litigation concerning the scope of the appeal procedures in such cases (see IRIS 2009-4: 11). The case concerned an internal review of BBC coverage of Middle Eastern Affairs based on a report commissioned from a senior journalist; it included consideration of the impartiality of the...