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The Act on the Freedom of Creation, Architecture, and Heritage was published in the Journal Officiel on 8 July 2016. The first article of its section on ‘freedom of creation’ refers to the freedom of artistic creation and its circulation, which is to be exercised “with due regard for the principles governing freedom of expression and in accordance with the first section of the Intellectual Property Code”. Infringement of this right is to attract criminal punishment: “Hampering, in a concerted fashion and under threat, exercise of the freedom of artistic creation or the freedom to circulate artistic...

On 25 February 2016, the regional court in Paris delivered an unusual but noteworthy decision on the delicate matter of the conflict between copyright protection and creative freedom. In the case at issue, the publishing house which holds the rights for the representation, reproduction, and audiovisual adaptation of the work of surrealist poet Paul Eluard, including more particularly his famous poem entitled ‘Liberté’, and the poet’s daughter instigated proceedings on the grounds of infringement of copyright against the producer and distributor of a film directed by David Cronenberg. The case was...

In two decisions delivered on 13 July 2016, the Conseil d’Etat (France’s highest administrative tribunal) rejected the appeals brought against decisions made by the national audiovisual regulatory authority (Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel - CSA) in December 2015. The decisions authorised the channel LCI to switch to freeview DTTV and refused the request from Paris Première to do so. Article 42-3 of the Act of 30 September 1986, amended by the Act of 15 November 2013, allows the CSA the possibility, under certain conditions, of authorising a pay DTTV channel to switch to freeview, waiving the...

The Decree amending the terms of reference of France Télévisions so as to allow implementation of the agreement concluded on 10 December 2015 between the public-sector audiovisual group and the representative organisations of audiovisual producers (USPA, SPFA, SPI and SATEV) was published in the Journal Officiel on 8 June 2016. In application of Article 48 of Act No. 86-1067 of 30 September 1986, the text amends Article 9 of the terms of reference and its annex on the extent of the rights transferred, in order to take into account this professional agreement, the aim of which is to allow France...

In a decision on 9 June 2016, the national competition authority (Autorité de la Concurrence) refused to lift the ban on exclusive distribution of the premium sport channel Canal Plus has been under since 2012, which has been preventing the audiovisual group from finalising its plans to join forces with beIN Sports. Canal Plus wanted to sign a five-year exclusive distribution agreement with beIN Sports, and would have paid the Qatari chain between EUR 300 and 400 million for it. The agreement would have enabled Canal Plus to reconnect with the subscriptions of beIN’s 2.5 million customers, with...