Legal Basis

Broadcasters hold the exclusive right to permit and to prohibit the retransmission of their own works or own live broadcasts by cable, according to Art. 11 of the Berne Convention, last revised in Paris in 1971, according to the Directive of the Council of Europe 89/522 EEC of 3 Oct. 1989, according to the European Convention on Cross Border Television from Strasbourg of 5 May 1989, and according to Art. 10 of the Council Directive 93/83 EEC of 27 Sept. 1993 on the coordination of certain rules concerning copyright and related rights applicable to satellite broadcasting and cable retransmission. Furthermore, broadcasters hold copy- and neighboring rights according to national copyright law.

In addition broadcasting stations have the exclusive right to permit and to prohibit the communication to the public of their works or live broadcasts within hotels according to Art. 3 of the EU Copyright in the Information Society Directive 2001/29 of 22 May 2001. The European Court of Justice has stated repeatedly that any provision of program signals to tv sets in hotel rooms consitutes a communication to the public according to Art. 3 EU Copyright in the Information Society Directive 2001/29, irrespective of whether reception is via satellite, via cable or terrestrial (Case C-306/05, Judgement of the European Court of Justice, 7 Dec. 2006 – Rafael/SGAE, Case C-136/09 Judgement of the European Court of Justice, 18 March 2010 – OSDD/Divani).