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On 11 January 2012 the District Court of The Hague ordered two Dutch internet access providers to block access to The Pirate Bay. Furthermore, Stichting BREIN, a foundation protecting the interests of the Dutch copyright industry, has been granted a right to directly request the providers to block future IP-addresses and (sub) domain names that may refer to The Pirate Bay. The providers in question, Ziggo and XS4ALL, have already announced they will appeal the ruling. BREIN, on the other hand, has announced it will request similar measures from other providers. The District Court found the legal...

On 19 December 2011 the Constitutional Court delivered a decision on the new Hungarian media laws (Decision 1746/B/2010. AB). In its decision the Court annulled several provisions and established the need for further legislation. During 2010, as it is widely known, the Hungarian Parliament adopted a series of acts, thus it created a new legal and institutional framework of media regulation (see IRIS 2010-8/34). The most important elements of this legislation were: - Act CIV. of 2010 on Freedom of Expression and on the Basic Rules of Media Content (Media Constitution; see IRIS 2011-1/37); and -...

The Office of Communications (Ofcom), the UK communications regulator, has imposed a fine of GBP 100,000 on Press TV, an Iranian news channel broadcasting in English on the Sky platform under a Television Licensable Content Service licence issued by Ofcom. The fine was for breach of provisions of Ofcom’s Broadcasting Code requiring broadcasters to avoid unjust or unfair treatment of individuals or organisations in programmes and that any infringement of privacy in programmes must be warranted (Rules 7.1 and 8.1). The case concerned a broadcast in July 2009 by Press TV of a news item concerning...

Spain’s new government has implemented the controversial Royal Decree based on the Intellectual Property final provision contained in the Ley de Economía Sostenible (Act for Economic Sustainability), informally known as Ley Sinde (Sinde Act), after former Minister of Culture Ángeles González-Sinde. The Sinde Act was passed by the Spanish parliament in February 2011, but opposition from the public kept the socialist government from implementing the law. The main aim of the law is to protect copyright owners, creators and other rightsholders against financial harm caused by illegal downloading. Under...

On 11 January 2012, the Oberlandesgericht München (Munich Appeal Court - OLG), in a dispute over costs, ruled in summary proceedings on a temporary injunction against a publisher that had been issued by the Amtsgericht München (Munich Local Court) and later declared lifted by the parties in appeal proceedings. The injunction had prevented the publisher from reporting on the main proceedings in a manner that identified the defendant. The OLG had to consider under what circumstances an injunction could be enforced in order to provide temporary legal protection. The case followed a series of programmes...