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Canal+, the main investor in the French cinema industry, has just been fined 10 million French francs (more than EUR 1.5 million) for abusing its dominant position in the pay-television market and in the market for the broadcasting rights for recent French films. The encrypted channel does indeed play an essential role in production by pre-purchasing 80% of French films. This financing is subject to a clause reserving exclusivity for broadcasting these films for one year following the twelve months after the film has first been shown in cinemas. To ensure their development, the pay-per-view channels...

The week before the European Parliament elections, the Conseil d'État delivered its judgment on the legality of the French law regulating the publication of public opinion polls. Article 11 of the act of 19 July 1977 prohibits the publication, broadcast or reporting of any opinion poll directly or indirectly related to an election during the week preceding voting and during the actual voting period. Last March the CSA ( Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel - government regulatory body for radio and television) sent a recommendation to all television and radio services, reminding them of the ban....

Having noted that in February, as had been the case for some months, eight radio stations broadcasting nationally (NRJ, Fun, Europe 2, Vibration, Vitamine, Top Music, Oui FM and Contact FM) had not complied with the quota of 40 % of songs broadcast being in French as required by the Act of 1 February 1994, the CSA served notice on them. This is an essential preliminary to being able to implement its powers of sanction. The operators strongly contest this requirement which imposes an obligation on all radio stations that 40 % of the songs they broadcast between 6.30 am and 10.30 pm must be in French,...

In a decision on 9 March 1999 the Paris Court of Appeal held that a film-set photographer had the benefit of copyright protection for a photograph taken during the making of a film. The dispute involved the magazine Télérama , which had published a special issue entitled «The best films of the century - 100 years of cinema», including a photograph of the actor Jean-Paul Belmondo in Jean-Luc Godard's film « Pierrot le Fou ». When the publication refused to pay the photographer the royalties he claimed, the case was brought before the Court of First Instance in Paris, which dismissed the photographer's...

The CSA ( Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel - audiovisual regulatory body) has given its opinion on the second part of the bill to reform the audiovisual area which supplements the text amending the organisation and financing of the public-sector audiovisual area adopted by the Conseil des Ministres last November (see Iris 1998-10: 13). The CSA stresses that «the second part of the bill to reform the audiovisual area deals with a number of serious shortcomings in existing legislation, particularly as regards broadcasting by satellite, and permits the transposition into French law of a number of...