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Grégory Lemarchal was a singer who became famous both for winning a reality TV programme and for the disease that killed him - despite the doubts expressed for a long time as to its nature - cystic fibrosis. During one of his sketches, a humorous commentator on a television programme who habitually renames celebrities by referring to them by a word that is supposed to sum them up chose “cystic fibrosis” to refer to Gregory Lemarchal, using the name of the disease in place of the name of the person each time it came up in a phrase. The commentator was prosecuted on the basis of a totally new infringement...

In France, authors enjoy the right to respect for their name, their status and their work. This right is perpetual, inalienable and not subject to limitation. It is transmitted to his successors on the death of the author (Art. L. 121-1 of the Intellectual Property Code). It is on the basis of infringement of the moral right of his predecessor that Victor Hugo’s heir lost his appeal against the author and editor of two sequels to Les Misérables . He claimed that these novels spoiled the famous writer’s work - the social context in which their action takes place is substantially different from that...

The presenter of TF1’s 1 o’clock news has been sued for public libel by the French society for the defence of tradition, family and property (TFP). When presenting a news item on the annual report of the inter-ministerial mission for vigilance and combating sects (Miviludes), the newscaster described as fraud the commercial practices of an association acknowledged in the report as being a sect, the name of which was revealed in the report that followed. The court in Paris had no difficulty in recognising that this constituted libel, which is defined in Article 29 of the Freedom of the Press Act...

In 2002, the French cartoonist Denis Leroy (pseudonym Guezmer) was convicted for complicity in condoning terrorism because of a cartoon published in a Basque weekly newspaper Ekaitza. On 11 September 2001, the cartoonist submitted to the magazine’s editorial team a drawing representing the attack on the twin towers of the World Trade Centre, with a caption which parodied the advertising slogan of a famous brand: “We have all dreamt of it... Hamas did it” (Cfr. “Sony did it”). The drawing was published in the magazine on 13 September 2001. In its next issue, the magazine...

The Court of First Instance has dismissed TF1’s action for the annulment of the Commission’s decision classifying certain measures adopted by the French Republic in favour of the public television stations France 2 and France 3 as State aid compatible with the common market, due to its legal team’s procedural mishaps. TF1’s claims have been ongoing since 1993. In 1993, Télévision française 1 SA (TF1), owners of the private French television network TF1, launched a complaint to the European Commission concerning the methods of funding of two French public channels, France 2 and France 3. TF1 argued...