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On 31 October 2013, the National Assembly definitively adopted new legislation and its implementing decree on the independence of the public audiovisual sector. As the texts were not adopted in exactly the same terms in both chambers when they were examined in July and early October 2013, and as it was decided to apply the accelerated procedure, a joint committee comprising seven members of the National Assembly and seven members of the Senate met on 15 October 2013 to propose a joint version. This was speedily approved by the Senate on 17 October 2013, and sent to the National Assembly for final...

On 9 October 2013, the audiovisual regulatory authority (Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel - CSA) announced that it had served an official warning on France Télévisions for having promoted books by the companies’ presenters on a number of occasions during the summer. As the CSA pointed out, while it was possible to invite celebrities to present the goods or services they have been involved in, care needed to be taken to ensure that it did not become surreptitious advertising, which is prohibited by Article 9 of the Decree of 27 March 1992. The warning comes in response to the presentation on 14...

In a decision of 2 October 2013, the Court of Cassation delivered a noteworthy decision recalling the party on which the burden of proof falls in cases of infringement of copyright. In the case at issue, the author of a novel claimed that several episodes of the television series Plus Belle la Vie broadcast in the summer of 2009 and the spring of 2010 on the channel France 3 used the theme, plot and main characters of his work. He therefore instigated proceedings for infringement of copyright against the company France Télévisions, in its capacity as the broadcaster, and the production companies...

On 16 October 2013, the General Court of the European Union validated the funding mechanism for France Télévisions set up by 2009 legislation reforming the public-sector audiovisual scene to compensate for the abolition of advertising on the public-sector group’s channels after 8 pm. The compensation took the form of an annual budget subsidy and two taxes, one on advertising spots, and the other on electronic communications. In a decision on 20 July 2010, the European Commission found that the State aid in the form of a budget subsidy for France Télévisions was compatible with the requirements...

On 3 October 2013, the Court of Justice gave a preliminary ruling in the Case of Peter Pinckney v. KDG Mediatech AG, C-170/12, regarding the jurisdictional rules set out in the Council Regulation (EC) No. 44/2001. Mr Pinckney claimed to be the author of 12 songs which were recorded by the group Aubrey Small on a vinyl record. The record was then, without his consent, reproduced on compact discs by an Austrian company named Mediatech, which were subsequently sold by companies in the United Kingdom on their website. This website was accessible from Toulouse, France, where Mr Pinckney lived. He sued...