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The Court of Appeal in Versailles and the Court of Cassation have in turn reached decisions on the very difficult question of the scope of the legal licence instituted by Article L. 214-1 of the French Intellectual Property Code (CPI). The first case was brought by the phonogram producer Universal Music against the television channel TF1; the complaint was that, without authorisation from the producer, TF1 used a number of phonograms as background music for the trailers for a television film and a variety programme. The case brought before the Court of Cassation was similar; the phonogram producer...

Before the latest Costa-Gavras film came out in France on 27 February, there was a good deal of fuss about the poster advertising the film. The poster represents a full-size red Catholic cross on a black background extended to merge with a swastika, with photographs of a priest and a German officer on either side and the title of the film"Amen" - in the centre. Considering that such a poster constituted defamation in respect of a group of persons by reason of their belonging to a specific religion, the association Alliance Générale contre le Racisme et pour le Respect de l'Identité Française et...

The final decree reforming the regulations of the audiovisual sector was published in the Official Journal on 6 February (for the previous decrees, see IRIS 2002-2: 8). The decree lays down the scheme applicable to cable and satellite channels and sets out all the corresponding provisions applicable to them, in particular the broadcasting of advertising, their contribution to the development of production and the scheme for broadcasting audiovisual works (original French-language works, works not shown previously, independent production, etc). It states in particular that "the maximum time devoted...

The scope of the statutory licence instituted by Article L. 214-1 of the Code de la propriété intellectuelle (French intellectual property code - CPI) still requires interpretation by the courts. It provides that "where a phonogram has been produced for commercial purposes, the performer and the producer may not oppose (...) its being broadcast (...)". In the present case, the radio station Europe 2 had produced and broadcast a duet that it had dubbed a "virtual duet", comprising excerpts from the phonogram of the performance of a song by Serge Gainsbourg (Je suis venu te dire que je m'en vais)...

After the question of the definition of what constitutes an audiovisual work (see IRIS 2002-1: 8), it was the turn recently for the qualification as a cinematographic or audiovisual "original French-language work" and "European work" to benefit from a number of clarifications. In the case in hand, the CSA had refused this qualification for a full-length animated film based on The Diary of Ann Frank that used images from an animated film produced in Japan. The producer of the disputed film had made over the exclusive television broadcasting rights to the Canal + channel subject to the film being...