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On 18 October 2007, the Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Court of Justice - BGH ) ruled that making pornographic offerings accessible on the Internet by simply entering an identification card or passport number did not meet the demands of legislation on the protection of minors (Case no. I ZR 102/05). Nor was it sufficient to impose an additional requirement to effect an account transaction or state a postcode. The parties to the dispute were both suppliers of age verification systems (AVSs) for operators of websites with pornographic content. The purpose of these systems is to prevent minors from accessing...

The European Commission adopted its Sixth Report on the application of the “Television without Frontiers” (TWF) Directive on 24 October 2007. The Commission is required to adopt such bi-annual reports under Article 26, TWF Directive. The period covered by the Sixth Report is 2005 and 2006. The main objective of this report is to describe and analyse the salient facts relating to the application of the Directive during this period. The Report commences with an outline of recent developments in the television market in Europe. This explanation of developments is followed by a discussion of the Foreign...

On 29 November 2007, the European Parliament approved without amendments the Council’s Common Position on the proposed new Audiovisual Media Services without Frontiers Directive. The Common Position adopted on 15 October 2007 formalised a text which had throughout the legislative process been the object of inter-institutional negotiations: the informal contacts between the Parliament, the Commission and the Council culminated in a final text approved with no amendments by Parliament. The Commission had originally proposed a regulatory construction consisting of a core of rules applicable to all...

The Council of the Communications Regulatory Agency (RAK), at its September session, has decided to hold public consultations on draft changes and amendments to the Broadcasting Code of Practice. The original version of the Broadcasting Code of Practice was adopted in 1998 and has since been changed and amended in 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2004. The new draft brings substantial changes in line with the basic principles of the EU with regard to the broadcasting sector. Unlike the existing Code which comprises only five brief chapters and a dozen paragraphs and sections, the new Draft consists of 35 paragraphs....

In the proceedings relating to the issue referred by the regional court in Koblenz for an intermediary decision (case C-244/06; see IRIS 2006-9: 5), Advocate-General Mengozzi has presented his final proposal. He proposed that the ban, established in §12 para. 3 No. 2 of the German Protection of Young Persons Act, on mail-order sales of video material that has no reference to their having been given clearance for access by young persons under national arrangements, is compatible with community law. The ban, described as “terms of sale” is not a measure of equivalent effect to that under Art. 28...