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The European Commission authorised the grant of an aid of EUR 37.6 million by the French Agence de l’innovation industrielle (Agency for Industrial Innovation) towards the Télévision Mobile Sans Limite (Unlimited Mobile Television) R&D project. The project is being carried out by a group of French public research bodies and companies, headed by Alcatel-Lucent’s subsidiary in France. The project aims to develop a new mobile TV broadcasting technology combining satellite and terrestrial networks, to be launched in 2009. Such technology is expected to improve the current reception quality, the number...

The new Regulatory Authority on technical protection measures ( Autorité de régulation des mesures techniques de protection - ARMTP) created by the Act on copyright and neighbouring rights in the information society (the “DADVSI” Act) of 1 August 2006 (see IRIS 2006-8: 13 and IRIS 2006-7: 11), was launched by the Minister for Culture on 6 April 2007. The decree on the functioning of this new independent administrative authority (submission of cases, investigation of applications, powers, means of appeal, etc.), which is composed of six members appointed by decree for a period of six years, was...

In the same week in which the setting up of a new regulatory authority on technical protection measures took place (see below), the court of appeal in Paris, deliberating on appeal, confirmed the validity of placing an anti-copying protection measure on a DVD (see IRIS 2006-4: 12). In doing so the court reiterated its position on the legality of making a private copy, which “did not constitute a right, but a lawful exception to the principle of prohibiting any total or partial copying of a protected work made without the consent of the copyright holder”. In this case, the applicant, who had bought...

The regional court in Paris has just upheld the case brought (jointly) by the graphic artist, designer and director of the credits of Steven Spielberg’s film “Catch me if you can”, which was released in France in February 2003 with the title “Arrête-moi si tu peux”. These professionals had discovered, two and a half years later on the Internet, a trailer for a different film, with images and sequences that the complainants claimed plagiarised their credits, without their names being mentioned. In their defence, the producer of the disputed film, its distributor and the company that designed and...

“The machinery is now in place for digital radio to reach French homes within a year”, declared the Minister for Industry on 13 March at a demonstration of new applications of digital radio, held at the invitation of the main French operators. On the previous day, the Minister for Culture and Communication, Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres, had referred four draft decrees concerning the development of digital radio and personal mobile television to the audiovisual regulatory authority ( Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel - CSA) for its opinion. The drafts, drawn up jointly with the Minister with responsibility...