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On 22 December 2017, a decree was adopted amending several elements of the terms of reference of France Télévisions. The first, main amendment concerns the entry into force of Act no. 2016-1771 of 20 December 2016 banning commercial advertising in children’s programmes on public television (see IRIS 2017-1/13). As of 1 January 2018, France Télévisions programmes aimed primarily at children under the age of 12 no longer contain advertising (other than generic messages promoting goods or services related to children’s health and development or general interest campaigns). This restriction applies...

On 22 December 2017, the court of appeal delivered a noteworthy decision reiterating the conditions defining infringement of copyright when an audiovisual work is an adaptation of a literary work. In the case at issue, the holders of rights in respect of the work of Charlotte Delbo, an iconic figure in the French Resistance and author of six books detailing her time spent as a political prisoner in La Santé prison, at Auschwitz, and in the Raisko commando, brought proceedings for infringement of copyright against France Télévisions, one production company, and two scriptwriters. They claimed that...

The national audiovisual regulatory authority (Conseil supérieur de l’audiovisuel - CSA) has published its first report on the representation of women in television advertisements. Law No. 2017-86 of 27 January 2017 on equality and citizenship gave the CSA specific responsibility in the fight against sexism in advertising, as illustrated by the new provisions of Article 14 of the Audiovisual Act: “It [the CSA] shall monitor respect for the dignity of all persons and the image of women who appear in televised advertising.” It was in this context that the CSA, determined to make an active contribution...

France’s high authority for the broadcasting of works and the protection of rights on the Internet (Haute Autorité pour la Diffusion des Œuvres and la Protection des Droits sur Internet - HADOPI) has presented its report on its activities for 2016-2017, a period which saw a change in the organisation’s team and the establishment of a consolidated budget intended to direct it towards new areas of work. The report presents all the work and actions implemented over the period: the implementation of the graduated response procedure, the observation of lawful and unlawful use, the promotion of the legal...

The Court of Appeal in Paris has also been looking at infringement of copyright - in this case, the alleged infringement of copyright with regard to the film The Artist, which won five Oscars. A French scriptwriter who claimed that he held author’s rights in respect of the script for an intended full-length silent film in black and white entitled Timidity, la symphonie du petit homme, felt that the film The Artist, released at the end of 2011, used key sequences from his script, included in a previous version. He therefore instigated legal proceedings against the writer, director and producers...