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On 22 March 2005 the CSA (Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel - audiovisual regulatory body) issued a recommendation to all radio and television services regarding the referendum on the European Constitution to be held on 29 May 2005. The recommendation applies from 4 April until the day of the referendum, and refers mainly to news in connection with the referendum. It recalls that audiovisual services must ensure that "political parties or groupings enjoy equitable presentation and broadcasting access". 'Equitable" does not mean 'equal'; strictly equal treatment of candidates is only required by...

Article 88 of the 2004 Budget Act amending Article 220(e) of the CGI (Code général des impôts - French tax code) and the corresponding implementing decree of 7 January 2004 created and defined a scheme that allows production companies to obtain a tax credit for the cinema in respect of films shot in France (see IRIS 2004-2: 11), the intention being to encourage companies to shoot and produce films in France. A year later, at the time of adopting amendments to the 2004 Budget Act, the Government has extended the scheme to audiovisual production, starting on 1 January 2005. Thus, under Article 220(e)...

The court of appeal in Montpellier has upheld the acquittal by the regional court in Rodez (see IRIS 2004-10: 10) of an Internet user who downloaded one-third of the 488 CD-ROMs seized at his home from peer-to-peer networks and copied the remaining two-thirds from CD-ROMs lent to him by friends. The defendant said he had made the copies exclusively for his own private use and that he knew it was against the law to copy films using the Internet. He also said that he had never sold or exchanged any of the CDs he had copied. On the basis of Articles L. 122-3, L. 122-4 and L. 122-5 of the Code de la...

In two notable decisions, the Court of Cassation has now clearly stated that the installation by a syndicate of co-owners of a collective aerial in a residential building constitutes an act of exploiting protected works separate from their broadcasting and as such gives rise to the payment of royalties. The disputes arose between a syndicate of co-owners of a block of flats and various societies for the collective management of rights (SACEM, SCAM, SACD, ADAGP and ANGOA) whose catalogues included the works being circulated. The syndicate of co-owners felt that by installing the collective aerial...

In a decision on 10 February 2005, the Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel (audiovisual regulatory body - CSA) served formal notice on Eutelsat, the satellite telecom network on which the Iranian channel Sahar 1 is carried, to stop broadcasting the channel within one month. The channel had not concluded an agreement with the CSA and had broadcast programmes that were manifestly anti-Semitic (see IRIS 2005-2: 12). Eutelsat made an urgent application to the Conseil d'Etat for enforcement of the decision to be suspended on the grounds that the Act of 30 September 1986 on freedom of communication, as...