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After the French President announced on 8 January 2008 that he wanted to abolish all advertising on public-sector television channels, the Copé Commission brought together a number of parliamentarians and professionals to discuss the issue. After four months of hearings, the Commission has delivered its report, advocating the gradual abolition of advertising on public-sector television channels after 8 p.m., starting in 2009. Added to these proposals are a number of desires on the part of the President, resulting in the start of the reform. This summer, the Act on modernising the economy amended...

On the basis of an opinion delivered on 16 April 2008 by the Ministry of Health on the impact of television channels on very young children, the Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel (national audiovisual regulatory authority – CSA), in compliance with the mission to protect children and adolescents conferred on it by Articles 1 and 15 of the Act of 30 September 1986, delivered a deliberation on 22 July 2008 aimed at protecting children under the age of three years from the effects of television. Two experts’ reports were the inspiration for the scientific opinion of the Ministry of Health against...

An Internet site was making available to signed-up television viewers who asked for it a copy of television programmes one hour after they had been broadcast. Online digital video recorder or abusive profiteer of technology? The regional court in Paris reached a decision on 6 August 2008. The case had been brought by the television channels M6 and W9, which saw this service as direct competition for their catch-up TV service and a violation of the rights they had acquired for the recorded works, which meant that the court had to examine the nature of the service in question. Catch-up TV is the...

The Mulholland Drive case, which came up regularly in the debate on the lawfulness of downloading as a private copy and turned the spotlight on the issues involved in this new type of behaviour, has reached its epilogue. The court of cassation delivered its decision on 19 June, putting an end to the quarrel over the nature of the private copy – it is not a right but a “lawful exception to the principle prohibiting any reproduction in full or in part of a protected work made without the consent of the copyright holder”. Thus the exception of the private copy may be claimed as defence in proceedings...

A number of important changes have been made to the law governing the audiovisual sector over the summer in the form of non-specific legislation, including an act on modernising the economy, referred to as the LME. Article 142 of the Act of 4 August 2008 on modernising the economy has raised the anti-concentration thresholds applicable to audiovisual undertakings, thereby amending Article 39 of the Act of 30 September 1986 on the freedom of communication. Henceforth no single natural person or legal entity, acting alone or jointly, may hold directly or indirectly more than 49% of the capital or...