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The Oberste Gerichtshof (Supreme Court - OGH) in Austria ruled in its recently published decision of January 2008 that a father was not responsible for copyright infringements committed by his daughter, a minor, through her file sharing activities. While the owner of the Internet connection was away on holiday his 17-year old daughter had uploaded 1,627 music files to a file sharing site. He had been unaware of the possible copyright problems linked to the use of file sharing systems and had never discussed these issues with his daughter. The court decided that the father was not liable. It accepted...

At the end of February, the Kommunikationsbehörde Austria (Austrian Communications Authority – KommAustria) granted the German company Media Broadcast GmbH a ten-year licence to operate a multiplex platform for mobile terrestrial broadcasting. Two applicants had been competing for the licence: Media Broadcast GmbH, which is owned by Télédiffusion de France, and Mobile TV Infrastruktur GmbH, which belongs to a group of Austrian publishers. KommAustria had to make the selection on the basis of six legal criteria that were set out in more detail in the MUX-Auswahlgrundsätzeverordnung 2007 (2007 Multiplex...

On 31 January 2008 the European Commission called on Austria, in accordance with Article 88(2) of the EC Treaty, to make its position clear on the funding of the Österreichischer Rundfunk (Austrian Broadcasting Corporation – ORF) (see IRIS 2005-9: 6). ORF is largely funded by the licence fees, the amount of which it is free to determine, which it receives from all viewers and listeners. With reference to its communication of 2001 concerning the application of the rules on state subsidies to public service broadcasting, the Commission is of the opinion that the funding might involve a prohibited...

As reported recently (see IRIS 2008-2: 8), the Foundation Board of the Österreichische Rundfunk (Austrian public broadcasting company – ORF) decided by a small majority on 13 December 2007 to increase the license fee by 9.4%. On 28 January 2008, the Public Council voted by a clear majority in objection to this increase. The main reason for the objection was what it considered to be the inappropriate timing of the measure. It thought that such a decision should not have been taken until after the structural and cost measures announced by the management had been implemented and the results of the...

On the basis of a series of complaints received since 2004, the European Commission has been looking into the degree of transparency and control surrounding the public mission and financing of the Austrian public service broadcaster ORF. Aside from claims alleging insufficiency of transparency and control of ORF’s public mission and financing, the scope and public financing of the broadcaster’s online activities and sports broadcasts have also been challenged. After reviewing the information presented by both the complainants and the Austrian authorities, The Commission has come to the preliminary...