Every film, whatever the genre, is an artistic creation protected by the moral
rights granted to authors in the Berne Convention and in national Copyright Acts.
According to the Berne Convention the moral rights assure that the author shall
have the right to object to any distortion, mutilation or other modification of
the work which would be prejudicial to his or hers honour or reputation. This
implies that a film should be shown in its original form. Thus, it is quite
obvious that breaks and interruptions in a film are such mutilations of a work
which constitute a violation of the moral rights of filmmakers.
Until 1 April 2002 the Swedish Radio and Television Act totally prohibited
commercial breaks during the broadcast of films or programmes with respect to
the audience and the moral rights of filmmakers. Despite strong protests from
the organizations of Swedish authors, performers and film producers as well as
individual authors and performers, the Swedish parliament has now implemented
article 11.3 of the EU TV-Directive, which allows advertisement interruptions in
films within certain intervals, in the Swedish Radio and Television Act. The
reason for this change is partly the stiff competition from satellite
transmissions to Sweden from Swedish broadcasters domiciled in other countries
within the EU, who are not bound by Swedish law, and partly the way that the
Swedish commercial TV company TV4 skirted the prohibition by interrupting films
or programmes with news summaries and other short programmes surrounded by
advertisements.
Since the amendments were introduced in the Swedish Radio and Television Act TV4
has systematically used the new possibility to mutilate films by interrupting
them with advertisements. Unfortunately, few authors or performers take legal
action against broadcasters – not because they do not care, but because a
lawsuit is always inconvenient and can also be very costly in terms of time and
money. However two Swedish filmmakers, Mr Vilgot Sjöman, and Mr Claes Eriksson
are now, with the support from KLYS, going to court to try if TV4 has infringed
their moral rights to their films (‘Alfred’ and ‘Hajen som visste för mycket’)
by inserting advertisement interruptions in their films.
The trial took place on the 8-9 and 11th November 2004 and the City Court of Stockholm announced its judgement on the 20th of December.