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Two District Courts (which have jurisdiction for hearing civil cases where the amount of the claim does not exceed FRF 50 000) have recently had to deliberate on disputes concerning libel on the Internet. The facts of the two cases were broadly similar, which makes the divergence between the two judges involved all the more remarkable. Both courts, on the basis of completely different grounds and arguments, declared themselves unable to deal with the disputes. In the first case, on 3 August, the District Court of the 11th arrondissement in Paris declared it was unable to deal with a case concerning...

The decree of 17 January 1990 defined the concept of an audiovisual work for national programme companies and private television channels broadcasting terrestrially without encryption. According to Article 4 of the decree, «audiovisual works comprise broadcasts not included in any of the following categories: full-length cinema films; games and information programmes; light entertainment; games; broadcasts other than fiction works, filmed mostly in a studio; broadcasts of sports events; advertising; teleshopping; a channel's own promotion; teletext services". On 11 December 1997, after viewing...

Disputes continue between journalists and their employers concerning the posting of their articles on the Internet (IRIS 1999-5: 3). This summer, journalists from the newspaper Le Progrès , supported by the French national union of journalists (SNJ) in defence of the collective interests of the profession, brought a case before the regional court in Lyon against the company which publishes the newspaper. The company was posting articles previously or concurrently published in the paper version of the newspaper on the Minitel and the Internet, without paying the journalists any royalties. In its...

As the first stage in the legislative programme announced by Lionel Jospin on 26 August 1999 at the Communication Summer School (IRIS 1999-8: 4), the Minister for Justice submitted at the meeting of the Cabinet on 1 September a draft bill «on adapting legislation concerning proof to information technologies and on the use of electronic signature". The current provisions of the Civil Code regarding evidence, drawn up at a time when paper was the only medium used for showing the existence or the content of contracts and for furnishing proof of the same, are hampering the development of electronic...

In a recent high-profile decision, the Commercial Court in Paris applied the Database Protection Act of 1 July 1998 in favour of France Télécom, the national company which until 1 January 1998 held a monopoly in the market for telecom services in France. The case concerned the offer to the public by the company MA Éditions of a reverse directory on the Minitel server «3617 Annu» and on the Internet. The service had been made possible by the company downloading data from France Télécom's electronic directory, which can be accessed using the code «3611». The judges of the Commercial Court held that...