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The Regional Court (TGI) in Nanterre has just added a new nugget in the debate on the liability of Internet hosts. In a case on which judgment was delivered on 8 December, the solution adopted by the judges has already aroused applause on the one hand and severe criticism on the other. Once again the case involved a model prohibiting the publication on Internet sites of photographs of her in which she appeared partly or totally unclothed. In its judgment in favour of the model, the Court began by referring to the absolute right of any individual in respect of personal portrayal, which entitled...

The appearance of digital recorders making it possible to produce copies of audio CDs or CD-ROMs which are perfectly identical to the original on low-cost supports increases the risk of the work of creative artistes being copied. After the Regional Court in Valence on 2 July, it was the turn of the Regional Court in Clermont-Ferrand to find against the manager of a free access CD writer shop for forgery. The shop made available to its customers, equipment for copying CDs and a computer used for personalising inlays. Having been informed of this situation by a television programme, the Public Prosecutor...

The question of the scope of legal licence, i.e. cases where the use of a commercial phonogram does not require the authorisation of the producer and the performer, is currently under debate before a number of courts in France. These cases are listed in Article L 214-1 of the French Intellectual Property Code (CPI), which states that «where a phonogram has been published for commercial purposes, the performer and the producer may not object to: 1. its direct communication in a public place, as long as it is not used as part of a show, or 2. its broadcast or the simultaneous distribution in full...

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...