Search results : 1145

On 11 May 2001, Catherine Tasca, Minister for Culture and Communication, established the Conseil supérieur de la propriété littéraire et artistique (Higher Council for Literary and Artistic Property - CSPLA). This council has been set up for a six-year period and its position in regard to the minister should mean that it will be a mediation body for matters relating to intellectual property in the context of the development of the information society. Its members represent not only a number of ministries, but also all professionals concerned with the issues raised by the application of literary...

In a 1999 decision that has since become famous, the Court of Cassation upheld, on the basis of the law of ownership, the possibility for the owner of an item of property to oppose any commercial exploitation of that item, specifically by means of a photograph. A recent case has enabled the Regional Court in Paris to reach a similar decision. A company had produced and directed a pornographic film, distributed on video cassettes, in which a large part of the story took place inside the Paris hotel Le Crillon; various parts of the hotel were easily recognisable. The name of the hotel was mentioned...

Not many cases are taken in the French courts by film directors against their producers. A recent case has determined the rights of all concerned when the contract between them for the production of a film is terminated. Julien Seri was taken on as a director by the producer Luc Besson, and was subsequently dismissed during filming as his methods of working were considered unsatisfactory. Although he had participated in creating the screenplay and had filmed some of the scenes for the film, he was dismissed and replaced by a different director. Once this director had completed the film, and some...

During an advertising campaign, the company Cegetel 7 claimed that its long-standing competitor, the company France Télécom - the identifiable target of its advertisingwas using pricing practices left over from an outdated monopolistic situation that no longer corresponded to reality. France Télécom felt that the campaign constituted unfair competition and infringed the regulations on comparative advertising, and had Cegetel 7 summoned to appear in court to be ordered to put a stop to the disputed advertising, or be fined if it continued. The Court of Appeal in Versailles ordered the defendant...

A version of the well-known programme Big Brother, which appeared originally in the Netherlands, has now been adapted in France; it consists of filming, 24 hours a day, the lives of 11 single people enclosed in a loft flat for seventy days. The adaptation, called Loft Story, is unquestionably successful, but it has regular brushes with the Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel (the audiovisual regulatory authority - CSA). Initially, the CSA made a number of ethical recommendations to the M6 channel that broadcasts the programme, in particular calling on its managers to show the "greatest possible...