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In a decision announced on 31 January 2002, the Kommunikationsbehörde Austria (Austrian Communications Authority - KommAustria) issued the first licence for national analogue terrestrial television. The decision was based on the Privatfernsehgesetz (Private Television Act), which came into force on 1 August 2001. The first licence, valid for ten years, was awarded to ATV Privatfernseh-GmbH (ATV). In the same decision, which does not yet have legal force, three other applications were rejected. The licence was awarded, inter alia, on the following conditions: using the allocated transmission capacities...

According to established case-law, whether an intellectual creation and, therefore, an "original work" exists in the sense of the Urheberrechtsgesetz (Copyright Act), is a legal question which, in cases of dispute, is decided in the final instance by the Oberster Gerichtshof (Supreme Court - OGH). The OGH has recently been asked to rule on the originality of web pages and websites. Firstly, it decided that the layout of a web page is protected as commercial art (and therefore as a work of art) if it is an original creation. However, there is no copyright protection for purely manual, routine pieces...

Article 22 of Directive 2000/31/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on certain legal aspects of information society services, in particular electronic commerce, in the Internal Market ("E-Commerce Directive") required Member States to transpose the Directive into national law by 17 January 2002. Austria has met this requirement by adopting its own E-Commerce-Gesetz (E-Commerce ActECG), which entered into force on 1 January. In some respects, the ECG's provisions extend beyond those of the Directive, which is why, under the 1999 Notifikationsgesetz (Notification Act), the legislative...

In order to transpose the EC's so-called E-Commerce Directive into Austrian law, a Federal Act is being drawn up, dealing with certain legal aspects of electronic commerce and the transmission of legal documents (E-Commerce Act - ECG) and amending the Signaturgesetz (Electronic Signature Act) and the Zivilprozessordnung (Code of Civil Procedure). The Government Bill was tabled in Parliament on 23 October 2001 and should be adopted in time for it to enter into force on 1 January 2002. Essentially, the content of the Bill remains within the limits laid down in the Directive. However, a few of the...

On 13 August 2001, the Austrian Council of Ministers adopted a regulation containing the list of events which must be broadcast on freely-accessible television. The regulation transposes Article 3a of Directive 89/552/EEC as amended by Directive 97/36/EC ("Television Without Frontiers") into Austrian law. The following events are deemed as being of major importance for society and must therefore be shown on a freely-accessible television channel available to at least 70% of the viewing public: the Olympic Summer and Winter Games, European Championship and World Cup football matches involving...