Home > NGO Romania > Information Society > Characteristics > Protection

Protection of the Public Interest

Illegal and harmful content

Work on protection against illegal and harmful content has been launched through two consultation documents.

One is a communication setting out the Commission's proposals for immediate action concerning the Internet; the other is a green paper giving more long term consideration to the protection of minors and human dignity in the wider context of information and audiovisual services.

Public consultation has resulted in the presentation of a proposal for a Council recommendation aimed at coordinating national initiatives by adopting joint principles of conduct, guidelines and objectives for action by the Member States and the other agencies concerned.

The European Parliament and the Council have also adopted an directive defines rights for the respect of an individual’s private life and obligations concerning in particular the purposes, security and confidentiality of the computer processing of personal data.

Protection of Economic Interests

Intellectual property rights (IPR)

The protection of designers by means of copyright and neighboring rights has been the subject of a proposal for a directive covering these different aspects has been unveiled.

The Commission has also raised other issues which call for further examination prior to the adoption of any legislative initiative. They concern digital broadcasting, determination of the law applicable, copyright management and the legal rights of designers.

Finally, the Commission has prepared a communication on follow-up to the consultation concerning the green paper on copyright. This concluded that the existing legislation needed to be adapted but not recast.

Databases

Community law provides for the structure of databases to be protected by copyright and, in addition to that copyright, creates a new economic right protecting the designer for a period of 15 years against unauthorized extraction of all or substantial parts of databases and their reuse. This legislation applies irrespective of whether an electronic or other medium is used.

Conditional access services

A proposal for a directive seeks to prohibit and punish all commercial activity associated with illegal access to protected commercial services such as the import and sale of decoders, chip cards and software.

Apart from the penalties to be defined at national level, the proposal for a directive allows service providers to bring action for damages against offenders and to seek the seizure of illegal equipment.

Among other things, the proposal relates to pay television, video on demand and, more generally, all services to which access is protected for payment purposes.