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The Council has reached a common position on the proposal for a Regulation on the law applicable to non-contractual obligations (“Rome II”). Rome II deals, inter alia, with cross-border torts. These include infringements of intellectual property rights, acts of unfair competition, and to an uncertain extent, infringements of privacy and other personality rights. At the heart of the proposal lies a three tier solution, variations of which are already in place in a number of Member States. The governing law is: 1. the law chosen by the parties, lacking a choice; 2. the law of the common habitual...

In November 2004, the online news magazines PowerPage and Apple Insider published detailed information about Apple Computer’s forthcoming release of a “new FireWire breakout box for GarageBand” to facilitate the digital recording of live audio performances. In December 2004, Apple brought suit in California state court, alleging that certain unnamed defendants, presumably some of its own employees, had disclosed its trade secrets in violation of their confidentiality agreements. Though the online magazines were not named as defendants in the suit, Apple obtained permission to serve sweeping civil...

The District Court of Amsterdam recently ruled that official reports, based on transcriptions of recorded conversations between a victim of extortion (Dutch real estate tycoon, Willem Endstra) and an intelligence agent, are not protected by copyright. In the period of May 2003 to January 2004, Endstra had fifteen conversations with agents of the Criminele Inlichtingen Eenheid (Criminal Intelligence Unit- CIE). In these conversations, which were being recorded as they took place, the businessman indicated that he was being extorted by Willem Holleeder. Endstra was murdered in May 2004. The recordings...

At the beginning of March 2005, the Consiliul Naţional al Audiovizualului (the Romanian regulatory body for electronic media - CNA ) adopted a new, partly amended code ( Codul de reglementare al Consiliului Naţional al Audiovizualului ) summarising all the important legal provisions on audiovisual content. The code was drawn up following consultations with broadcasters' representatives and the public. With a view to Romania's accession to the EU, it is designed to bring the country's legislation into line with existing EU regulations. The 160 articles of the code are divided into chapters regulating...

The High Court on 24 January made an order requiring three ISPs to hand over to four record companies the names, addresses and telephone numbers of 49 alleged file-sharers. The first such order had been made by the Court in July 2005 (see IRIS 2005-10: 15). The file-sharers in the recent case were all alleged to have downloaded between 500 and 5,000 files, in breach of s.140 of the Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000 (see IRIS 2000-8: 13). The music companies intend to take infringement proceedings against the file-sharers. Mr. Justice Kelly described the activity as a modern form of thieving....