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In addition to commercial cable and satellite television, commercial terrestrial TV will soon be permitted in Austria. The National Assembly adopted a Privatfernsehgesetz (Commercial Television Act) on 5 July 2001. The Act regulates, on the one hand, the provision of freeto-air television services (terrestrial television) and, on the other, the organisation of radio and television via cable networks (cable broadcasting) and satellite (satellite broadcasting), which are already permitted. The Act should enter into force on 1 August 2001, when the Kabel- und Satelliten-Rundfunkgesetz (Cable and Satellite...

On 27 June 2001, the Austrian National Assembly's Constitution Committee adopted a far-reaching amendment to the Rundfunkgesetz (Broadcasting Act), which regulates the Österreichische Rundfunk (Austrian Broadcasting Corporation - ORF). The Act, which will in future be known officially by its abbreviation "ORF-Gesetz", was passed by the plenary National Assembly on 5 July 2001. The amendment will impose a new legal status on the ORF, which will become a public law foundation by 1 January 2002. Its official role will be to provide a universal broadcasting service for the benefit of the general public....

Under a contract signed in March this year, Austrian public television broadcaster ORF has increased its cooperation with the European cultural channel, ARTE. The main purposes of the new association are programme exchange - eg the broadcast of ORF programmes on ARTE and co-productions. An ORF editor will also be permanently seconded to ARTE, and ORF will participate in an advisory capacity at meetings of ARTE bodies such as the Programming Committee and General Assembly. The contract, which entered into force on 1 April, builds on co-operation between the broadcasters dating back to 1998.

Having previously decided (albeit with no legal basis) that, under copyright law, someone who sets up a hyperlink actually reproduces the "linked-in" contents (see IRIS 2000-7: 9), the Oberster Gerichtshof (Supreme Court - OGH) recently dealt expressly with the question of liability for hyperlinks from a competition law point of view for the very first time. The facts of the case are as follows: the first plaintiff is the publisher of the Kurier daily newspaper and the second plaintiff is its subsidiary, which deals with advertising. The defendant, an employment agent working in the field of staff...

On 13 March 2001, the Council of Ministers adopted drafts for two new broadcasting laws: an amendment to the Rundfunkgesetz (Broadcasting Act), which forms the legal basis of the ORF (Austrian public service broadcasting corporation), and a new Privatfernsehgesetz (Commercial Television Act). Under the draft amendment to the Rundfunkgesetz, the ORF is to be converted into a public law foundation. The purpose of the foundation will be to provide public-service broadcasting. It will not be (privately) owned, but will serve the general public. The draft also obliges the ORF to provide technical infrastructure...