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IRIS 2020-6:1/21 [FR] COVID-19: Emmanuel Macron’s plan for culture

On 6 May, Emmanuel Macron announced a ‘plan for culture’, with measures designed to complement those adopted at the start of the health crisis. Eight days earlier, personalities from the world of art and culture, who said they felt ‘forgotten’ even though they had been severely affected by the lockdown, had written an open letter to the French President in a national newspaper. The President of the Republic began by granting the key demand put forward by the letter’s signatories, namely that the unemployment benefits paid to so-called ‘intermittents du spectacle’...

IRIS 2020-6:1/19 Competition authority rejects Molotov platform’s complaint about TF1 and M6

Molotov, a television channel and service distribution platform, streams French audiovisual programmes over the top (OTT) under a ‘freemium’ model that enables users to access some channels free of charge and pay to subscribe to additional channels and services. It complained to the French competition authority about certain practices used by the TF1 and M6 groups in the television distribution and marketing sector which it considered incompatible with national and EU competition rules. According to Molotov, TF1 and M6 suddenly and abusively broke the experimental agreements they...

IRIS 2020-6:1/18 [FR] Fight against piracy: bill establishing plea agreement tabled

The French Parliament’s examination of the audiovisual reform bill was due to begin at the end of March. On 28 April, following the indefinite postponement of this process on account of the health crisis, opposition MPs tabled a draft law “designed to strengthen instruments to combat piracy of copyrighted works and establish a plea agreement measure.” Under the plea agreement system, a fine would be paid in order to avoid court proceedings for certain offences. It is worth recalling that the government’s audiovisual reform bill makes provision, in particular, for the...

IRIS 2020-5:1/3 [FR] Neighbouring rights: publishers secure initial victory against Google before competition authority

With the adoption of the Act of 24 July 2019 creating a neighbouring right for press publishers and agencies, France became the first country to transpose the EU Copyright Directive’s provisions on neighbouring rights. Under the Act, a search engine’s use of article excerpts (‘snippets’) may be negotiated in the form of a licence agreement with the relevant publishers, in return for payment, if the excerpts are read rather than the original article (see IRIS 2019-9:1/17). However, on the day the new provisions entered into force, 24 October 2019, Google announced its...

IRIS 2020-5:1/4 [FR] COVID-19: support for the audiovisual and cultural sector

With cinemas closed, filming suspended and festivals cancelled, the cultural sector is being hit particularly hard by the current health crisis. On 18 March 2020, Minister of Culture Franck Riester announced various measures and emergency funding of EUR 22 million to support the sector. Those working in the sector can also benefit from the general emergency measures adopted by the government, which include grants from the solidarity fund (initially worth EUR 1 billion, then increased to EUR 7 billion); the deferral or staggering of rent, tax and social security payments; and the mobilisation of...