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The Conseil supérieur de la propriété littéraire et artistique (Higher Council on Literary and Artistic Property), announced by Lionel Jospin in January 1999, has just been instituted by decree and should be set up before the end of the year, for a period of six years. The Higher Council's mission is to advise the Minister for Culture and Communications; the Minister will give it an agenda and it must make proposals and recommendations on literary and artistic property. It is also to act as an observatory for the exercise and respect of copyright and neighbouring rights, monitoring the evolution...

On 20 September, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs notified the Secretary General of the Council of Europe of the objection of the French Government to the automatic entry into force of the Protocol amending the European Convention on Transfrontier Television. The Protocol in Article 35, paragraph 2, foresees its entry into force following the expiry of a period of two years after the date on which it has been opened for acceptance (i.e., 1 October 2000; for more information on the Protocol see IRIS 1998-9: 4). However, those States or the European Community which expressed their consent...

Almost two years after the Canard Enchaîné case, the European Court of Human Rights has again found that France has violated the principles contained in Article 10 of the Human Rights Convention. The case concerned the finding against the director of a newspaper and a journalist who had reported on the proceedings brought by a company that managed hostels for immigrant workers against one of its former directors. It was taken on the basis of Article 2 of the Act of 2 July 1931, which prohibits the publication before the Courts reach a verdict, of any information concerning proceedings...

The Act of 1 August 2000 reforming the audiovisual sector (see report in this IRIS) inserts four articles concerning the Internet in the Act of 30 September 1986 (as amended) in Section 6 entitled "Provisions concerning on-line communication services other than private correspondence". The provisions were introduced during the parliamentary debate on the initiative of the member of parliament Patrick Bloche in reaction to recent case-law on the matter (cases involving Estelle Halliday and Lynda Lacoste; see IRIS 1999-5: 3 and IRIS 2000-1: 12), and have been much amended. The new Articles 43-9 and...

On 29 March the company UGC put on sale an annual season ticket giving unlimited access, for FRF 98 a month, to the 350 cinemas in its network. The launch of the card produced an immediate reaction from the other distribution networks (MK2, Cinévog SARL, Studio du Dragon and Les Cinq Parnassiens). This led the Minister for Culture and Communication to call for sales of the UGC card to stop, as of 9 May, because of the negative opinion expressed by the cinema mediator. At the same time the other networks appealed to the Monopolies Board, calling for protective measures. The complainants said that...