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In September 1997 IRIS reported on a Communication from the European Commission on a proposal for a European Parliament and Council Directive on the legal protection of services based on, or consisting of, conditional access (see IRIS 1997-8: 8). This covers television broadcasting services, sound radio broadcasting and information society services where these are provided on the basis of conditional access. The aim is to prohibit the manufacture, import, sale or possession for commercial purposes of an illegal device and its installation, maintenance or replacement for commercial purposes, and...

In a judgment given on 7 April 1998, the First Criminal Chamber of the Federal Court (Strafsenat des Bundesgerichtshofs - BGH) upheld an earlier judgment by the Traunstein Regional Court (Landesgericht - LG), acquitting two accused persons of conspiring to commit crimes involving kidnap, murder, sexual abuse of children, rape and sexual violence. Using the pseudonyms "Leather Witch" and "Sado-Hangman", the accused operated a so-called "S/M studio", which they advertised on the Internet. Via E-mail, they offered to provide an undercover investigative journalist with...

For the first time ever, press advertisements will invite applications for Governorships for the British Broadcasting Corporation. This reflects the Secretary of State's desire to widen the pool from which potential Governors can be chosen. The first adverts, to appear from 1 March 1998, will relate to the positions of Vice-Chairman and two Governors (one of whom will chair the English National Forum). The appointments are for four-year terms.

An order is now in effect in the UK to reduce the payment made by the UK Channel 4 to the Independent Television Commission from its excess revenues from 50% to 33%. The payment is a remnant of the 'safety net' introduced to protect Channel 4 because of its special obligations to meet minority tastes by providing financial support if its advertising revenues fell below a specified figure. However, the Channel's commercial success has resulted in the reverse occurring with the Channel having to make payments rather than receiving support. The order is a partial step in remedying this.

Despite the criticisms made by consumer groups and some newspapers which tried to prove that Law No 25/1994 on the implementation of the "Television without Frontiers" Directive was systematically being violated, between 1994 and 1997, there has been only one reported case in which a sanction was imposed for violating of the Spanish Law: in February 1995 the competent authority, the Ministerio de Fomento (Ministry of Development) gave a fine of 10 million pesetas (approx. 65.000 ECU) to Antena 3 and Tele 5 for exceeding the advertising time limits. In 1997, the Government acknowledged these alleged...