- Email: [email protected]
Telecommunication Council discusses liberalization of postal services
CLSR
and growing societal awarenessof the possibilities and the inevitability of electronic services promoted by permanent media coverage. The report - ‘Tbe Electronic Information the European Economic
Markets for Services in Area’ - is
available in electronic form on I’M Europe World Wide Web server at http://www.echo.lu/. The document is located on the INFO 2000 home page under the IMO section. Enquiries should be E-mailed to INFO 2000 at echo.lu.
European CD-ROM
Law issued on
All European Union legislation has been packaged on CD-ROM by Technical Indexes as part of its European Regulatory Library series.The publishers claim that the CD, ‘European Law and CD-ROM’, “is the most complete reference source for European law and includes all EU legislation and treaties, including Directives and regulations”. Included in the product are European Court of Justice casesand references to national implementation measures and proposed legislation. Guidelines from the UK Department of Trade and Industry on the likely impact of legislation are also included, together with proposals and contact points within the DTI to assistwith enquiries. It also contains a thesaurus and glossary, specifically designed to unravel European ‘jargon’. European Law is being introduced at an introductory rate of &1295, a &200 saving on the list price. It includes over 250 000 pages of text, which in its published format would occupy more than 15 metres of shelf space. Updated disks are issued every 60 days. Further information from Monique Nowers, European Regulatory Division, Technical Indexes Limited, tel: +44 (0)1344 426311 or fax: +44 (0)1344 424971, E-mail: [email protected].
Telecommunication Council discusses liberalization of postal services Plans for the liberalization of postal services in the UK made progress at
the December meeting of the Telecommunications Council. Ministers reached political agreement on a common position on the proposed Directive in question, the sole item on the agenda,which envisagesan obligatory universal, high-quality service for everyone throughout the EU at affordable prices. The Directive sets out harmonized criteria for services likely to be limited to the providers of this universal service (to ensure financial viability), with a weight limit of 350 g for domestic post and price limit based on five times the standard letter postage. The Council reached agreement on the following timetable: the Commission will present an analysis of the sector by 31 December 1998; the European Parliament and the Council will have to take decisionsby 1January 2000, based on Commission proposal for gradual and controlled liberalization starting on 1 January 2003. If the Parliament and the Council are unable to come to such a decision before 1 January 2000, the Directive will expire on 31 December 2004. Member States would be free to take or maintain measures that liberalized postal services more fully, if they wished.
Building Society
the Information
A 45 million ECU programme, to improve awareness of information technology and to support demonstration projects, hasbeen proposed by the Commission. Running from 1997 to the end of 2001, it would promote understanding of the opportunities, benefits and possible risks of the Information Society, and identify opportunities for, and barriers to, the use of new technologies, particularly in relation to disadvantagedsocial groups. The programme will include an inventory of international, national and European initiatives.
Other News in Brief Two treaties adopted at WIPO Diplomatic Conference At its recent Diplomatic Conference in Geneva from 2-20 December 1996, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) reached agreement on
Computer
Briefing
two international treaties, to be known as the WIPO Copyright Treaty and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty. Any Member States of WIPO may now accede to those Treaties. According to WIPO: “Both Treaties include provisions which offer responses to the challenges of digital technology, particularly the Internet.” The Treaties provide an exclusive right for authors, performers and producers of phonogramsto authorize the making available of their works, performances or phonograms, respectively, to the public by wire or wireless means. This will enable the public to accessthem from a place and at a time individually chosen by them - languagewhich covers on-demand, interactive transmissionsfrom the Internet. In relation to that right and the rights of communication to the public, in general, the Conference adopted an agreed statement expressing the understanding that the mere provision of physical facilities for enabling or making communication does not itself amount to communication. The Treaties also contain provisions on obligations concerning technological measuresof protection and electronic rights managementinformation, regarded as indispensable for an efficient exercise of rights in a digital environment. The Conference also discussed whether or not specific provisions are needed concerning the application of the right of reproduction concerning some temporary, transient, incidental reproductions, that did not adopt any such provisions. This was because the Conference considered that those issues might be appropriately handled on the basis of the existing intemational norms on the right or reproduction, and the possibleexceptions to it, particulary under Article 9 of the Beme Convention. This latter issuehad been one of the most contentious subjects at the Conference. Despite strenuous efforts by a number of delegations, including the UK, to find a formulation which would have met the concerns of all parties, this proved impossible, leaving deletion as the only option upon which all could agree. Both Treaties recognise a right of distribution to the public of copies. They lead to national legislation to determine the territorial effect of the exhaustion of rights with the first sale
Law & Security Report Vol. 13 no. 2 1997 0 1997, Elsevier Science Ltd.
147
and growing societal awarenessof the possibilities and the inevitability of electronic services promoted by permanent media coverage. The report - ‘Tbe Electronic Information the European Economic
Markets for Services in Area’ - is
available in electronic form on I’M Europe World Wide Web server at http://www.echo.lu/. The document is located on the INFO 2000 home page under the IMO section. Enquiries should be E-mailed to INFO 2000 at echo.lu.
European CD-ROM
Law issued on
All European Union legislation has been packaged on CD-ROM by Technical Indexes as part of its European Regulatory Library series.The publishers claim that the CD, ‘European Law and CD-ROM’, “is the most complete reference source for European law and includes all EU legislation and treaties, including Directives and regulations”. Included in the product are European Court of Justice casesand references to national implementation measures and proposed legislation. Guidelines from the UK Department of Trade and Industry on the likely impact of legislation are also included, together with proposals and contact points within the DTI to assistwith enquiries. It also contains a thesaurus and glossary, specifically designed to unravel European ‘jargon’. European Law is being introduced at an introductory rate of &1295, a &200 saving on the list price. It includes over 250 000 pages of text, which in its published format would occupy more than 15 metres of shelf space. Updated disks are issued every 60 days. Further information from Monique Nowers, European Regulatory Division, Technical Indexes Limited, tel: +44 (0)1344 426311 or fax: +44 (0)1344 424971, E-mail: [email protected].
Telecommunication Council discusses liberalization of postal services Plans for the liberalization of postal services in the UK made progress at
the December meeting of the Telecommunications Council. Ministers reached political agreement on a common position on the proposed Directive in question, the sole item on the agenda,which envisagesan obligatory universal, high-quality service for everyone throughout the EU at affordable prices. The Directive sets out harmonized criteria for services likely to be limited to the providers of this universal service (to ensure financial viability), with a weight limit of 350 g for domestic post and price limit based on five times the standard letter postage. The Council reached agreement on the following timetable: the Commission will present an analysis of the sector by 31 December 1998; the European Parliament and the Council will have to take decisionsby 1January 2000, based on Commission proposal for gradual and controlled liberalization starting on 1 January 2003. If the Parliament and the Council are unable to come to such a decision before 1 January 2000, the Directive will expire on 31 December 2004. Member States would be free to take or maintain measures that liberalized postal services more fully, if they wished.
Building Society
the Information
A 45 million ECU programme, to improve awareness of information technology and to support demonstration projects, hasbeen proposed by the Commission. Running from 1997 to the end of 2001, it would promote understanding of the opportunities, benefits and possible risks of the Information Society, and identify opportunities for, and barriers to, the use of new technologies, particularly in relation to disadvantagedsocial groups. The programme will include an inventory of international, national and European initiatives.
Other News in Brief Two treaties adopted at WIPO Diplomatic Conference At its recent Diplomatic Conference in Geneva from 2-20 December 1996, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) reached agreement on
Computer
Briefing
two international treaties, to be known as the WIPO Copyright Treaty and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty. Any Member States of WIPO may now accede to those Treaties. According to WIPO: “Both Treaties include provisions which offer responses to the challenges of digital technology, particularly the Internet.” The Treaties provide an exclusive right for authors, performers and producers of phonogramsto authorize the making available of their works, performances or phonograms, respectively, to the public by wire or wireless means. This will enable the public to accessthem from a place and at a time individually chosen by them - languagewhich covers on-demand, interactive transmissionsfrom the Internet. In relation to that right and the rights of communication to the public, in general, the Conference adopted an agreed statement expressing the understanding that the mere provision of physical facilities for enabling or making communication does not itself amount to communication. The Treaties also contain provisions on obligations concerning technological measuresof protection and electronic rights managementinformation, regarded as indispensable for an efficient exercise of rights in a digital environment. The Conference also discussed whether or not specific provisions are needed concerning the application of the right of reproduction concerning some temporary, transient, incidental reproductions, that did not adopt any such provisions. This was because the Conference considered that those issues might be appropriately handled on the basis of the existing intemational norms on the right or reproduction, and the possibleexceptions to it, particulary under Article 9 of the Beme Convention. This latter issuehad been one of the most contentious subjects at the Conference. Despite strenuous efforts by a number of delegations, including the UK, to find a formulation which would have met the concerns of all parties, this proved impossible, leaving deletion as the only option upon which all could agree. Both Treaties recognise a right of distribution to the public of copies. They lead to national legislation to determine the territorial effect of the exhaustion of rights with the first sale
Law & Security Report Vol. 13 no. 2 1997 0 1997, Elsevier Science Ltd.
147