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The national film institutes of the 15 Member States of the European Union have made a common declaration on the importance of State aid for European films. This is the first time the film institutes have made a common statement. The national film institutes are publicly funded and were founded to support national and European film culture. In this common declaration the institutes express their concerns regarding the necessity for State aid for European films. The institutes are worried that the audio-visual sector in Europe will be left solely to the chances of free market forces. In the declaration,...

On 25 July 2002, the Austrian Bundesministerium für Justiz (Federal Ministry of Justice) submitted a draft ministerial amendment to the Copyright Act for further evaluation. The main purpose of the amendment is to bring the Act into line with Directive 2001/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society (Copyright Directive). However, the draft also clarifies and improves certain aspects of how the Act should be implemented and amends some elements of copyright contract law. The ministerial...

According to Section 13.9 of the Bundesgesetz über den Österreichischen Rundfunk (Federal Act on the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation - ORF-Gesetz, ORF-G), advertising for radio programmes broadcast by Österreichische Rundfunk (Austrian Broadcasting CorporationORF) may not be shown on television channels operated by ORF, and vice versa, unless it concerns the contents of individual programmes. According to the Act, which entered into force on 1 January 2002, the ban on cross promotion is designed to prevent the distortion of competition between the public service broadcaster ORF on the one hand...

A number of Member States of the Council of Europe have either signed or ratified treaties of relevance to the audiovisual sector since the publication in IRIS 2002-5 of the table of signatures and ratifications of such treaties. - On 14 May, the Netherlands became the eighth country to accede to the European Convention on the Legal Protection of Services based on, or consisting of, Conditional Access (see IRIS 2000-9: 3). Having signed this Convention on 24 January 2001, Romania proceeded to become the first country to ratify it on 26 August 2002. The Convention will enter into force upon ratification...

In mid-April, the national office for the fight against computer and Internet crime, created by the Ministry of the Interior, published its first report. This special unit, established on 1 August 1999, reports to the Abteilung "Zentrale kriminalpolizeiliche Dienste" ("central criminal police services" department), which forms part of the directorate general for public security. The report shows that the number of attacks by hackers and viruses and cases of computer fraud have risen sharply. In response to this trend, the Minister of the Interior has announced five new measures: the proposed bureau...