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IRIS 1996-9 contained a report on a draft Amendment Bill of 12.9.96 amending Austria's Regional Radio Act. Since 20.11.96 this has become a Government Bill for a Federal Act of Parliament amending the Regional Radio Act. The National Council will vote on the Bill, and therefore on amendments to the Regional Radio Act. The content of the Government Bill differs from the draft Amendment Bill in insignificant detail.

Having been passed by the Lower (National Council) and Upper (Federal Council) Houses of Parliament on 28 February and 19 March respectively, an amending Act on the Austrian Copyright Act became law on 1 April 1996. Austria introduced this Act to satisfy its obligation of implementing Council Directive 93/83/EEC of 27 September 1993 on the coordination of certain rules concerning copyright and rights related to copyright applicable to satellite broadcasting and cable retransmission, and also Council Directive 93/98/EEC of 29 October 1993 harmonizing the term of protection of copyright and certain...

In mid-September the Austrian Federal Chancellery issued a Bill to revise the Regional Radio Act ( Regionalradiogesetz - RRG) and a Cable Broadcasting Bill ( Kabelrundfunkgesetz - KRG) for consideration; both drafts had already been announced in the government agreement by the coalition parties on 20 March 1996. These were necessary as a result of two judgments of 27 September 1995, in which the Austrian Constitutional Court ( Verfassungsgerichtshof - VfGH) forced the legislator to take action. Firstly, the Court considered the legal principles for drawing up the frequency allocation plan (and...

On 25.06.1996 the Austrian High Court delivered a judgment in a case between an advertising agency and a film production company which is of interest as it is the first time that the concept of format in films has been referred to in Austria. The case was brought on the grounds that the complainant, an advertising agency, was the originator of the format of an advertising video clip for an AIDS campaign produced under contract to the Ministry of Health. As a characteristic feature of the format, the complainant claimed that it had created the format for the video clip, which it defined as follows:...

With a decision on 21.06.1995 the Austrian Constitutional Court (VGH) instigated norm verification proceedings to determine which parts of the Regional Radio Act (RRG) and the frequency utilisation plan regulating the awarding of regional radio broadcasting licences needed to be investigated as to their constitutionality. In a second decision on the same day verification proceedings were also instigated in respect of the constitutionality of parts of the broadcasting decree (RVO) covering cable broadcasting ( see : IRIS 1995 - 8 : 8). In two judgments on 27.09.1995 the VGH set aside the questioned...