Search results : 305

In a decision of 26 June 2014 (case no. 2013/03/0012), the Österreichische Verwaltungsgerichtshof (Austrian Administrative Court – VwGH) submitted questions to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) concerning the interpretation of Directive 2010/13/EU (Audiovisual Media Services Directive – AVMSD) as part of the “New Media Online” case (case C-347/14). The national court procedure concerns the website of an Austrian daily newspaper, which contains its own video section under a subdomain. This section contains a total of more than 300 news videos that can be searched via a catalogue....

In a decision of 23 January 2014, the Austrian Oberste Gerichtshof (Supreme Court - OGH) ruled that a website’s operators were obliged under Article 18(4) of the E-Commerce-Gesetz (E-Commerce Act - ECG) to disclose to the party concerned the e-mail addresses of users who had posted insulting comments about him. The court rejected the defence of editorial confidentiality. The defendant operates an online discussion forum on its Internet site. The plaintiff, a politician, had demanded that the forum operator disclose the e-mail addresses of four of its users who had written unlawful comments about...

On 27 March 2014, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) gave its ruling in Case C-314/12, a case between UPC Telekabel Wien, on the one hand, and Constantin Film Verleih and Wega Filmproduktionsgesellschaft, on the other. The CJEU considered whether it is permissible to order an internet service provider (ISP) to block its subscribers’ access to a website on which copyright protected films are made available to the public, without the rightsholders' consent. Constantin Film and Wega are film production companies. They claimed that some of the films in which they hold the copyright and...

In a decision of 17 December 2013, the Oberste Gerichtshof (Supreme Court - OGH) referred a legal dispute over the blank cassette levy on hard drives back to the first-instance court. It considered that the trial court had failed to establish whether and, if so, to what extent the remuneration system provided for in Article 42b(1) of the Urheberrechtsgesetz (Copyright Act - UrhG) - particularly in connection with the refunding of remuneration under Article 42b(6) UrhG - could be deemed “fair compensation” in the sense of Article 5(2)(b) of Copyright Directive 2001/29/EC. The OGH, particularly on...

In a decision of 11 November 2013, the Austrian Bundeskommunikationssenat (Federal Communications Board - BKS), following a request from the Austrian public broadcaster Österreichischer Rundfunk (ORF) to amend the concept for its media library, commented on the definition of sponsorship in non-linear media services. The procedure followed a complaint by the lower-instance Kommunikationsbehörde Austria (Austrian Communications Authority - KommAustria) about ORF’s plans to amend its marketing concept. KommAustria had found, on the one hand, that ORF sold advertising slots that were not tied to particular...