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Legislation adapting the law on proof and evidence to information technologies and on electronic signature was adopted on 29 February. This text transposes the Community Directive of 13 December 1999 into French law and adapts it. It defines electronic signature as a reliable identification procedure guaranteeing its connection with the document to which it is attached. The Act states that a procedure is deemed reliableunless proved otherwise - if the electronic signature is created, the identity of the signatory assured and the integrity of the document guaranteed. An implementing decree is to...

The Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel (the regulatory body for the audiovisual sector in France - CSA) recently fined the public-sector channels France 2 and France 3 for failing to abide by Articles 8 and 9 of the Decree of 27 March 1992 that prohibit firstly advertising on television for beverages containing more than 1.2% alcohol and secondly surreptitious advertising. The latter is constituted by the presentation of goods, services or brand-names outside advertising breaks with a view to promoting them rather than to informing viewers, regardless of whether such promotion was deliberate or...

On a number of occasions in January 1997, the national television company France 2 broadcast excerpts from two hit records by a well-known pop group as background music for trailers promoting the broadcasting of films it intended to show. The producer of the phonograms considered that use of this kind without special authorisation was unlawful and, after the failure of an attempt to reach a settlement, brought proceedings before the commercial court in Paris. The court delivered its decision on 17 December 1999. The situation is very tense between the various parties involved, and a number of cases...

The advertising standards board (BVP), the self-regulatory body of the advertising professions, has just published a recommendation on advertising on Internet. The recommendation refers at length to the revised guidelines drawn up by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) in 1998. The rules laid down by this text are aimed at both defining the limits of advertising activity and guaranteeing the legality of the content of messages circulating on the Internet. Thus the first point concerns the identification of the advertiser origin ating an advertising message; the identity must be clear and...

On 17 January Raphael Hadas-Lebel, a member of the Conseil d'État, submitted the report of the working party on "terrestrial digital television" of which he was chairman to Catherine Trautmann, Minister for Culture and Communication. The working party had been set up in October 1999 with the brief of analysing and summarising the many contributions received in response to a wide-ranging consultation of the professionals concerned. These recommendations are to be used by the Government in drawing up various provisions on terrestrial digital broadcasting for integration in the Audiovisual Act, which...