Search results : 1106

On 7 December 2011, the Conseil d’Etat (Council of State) delivered a high-profile decision on the powers of the audiovisual regulatory authority (Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel - CSA) in the settlement of differences. Since 2004, the CSA has had a quasi-jurisdictional power as, under Article 17-1 of the Act of 30 September 1986, it may be referred to by an editor, a distributor of services, or an operator or supplier of access to digital radio or television services, with a view to settling any differences involving the distribution of a radio or television service. In the case at issue, in...

On 20 December 2011, the audiovisual regulatory authority (Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel - CSA) adopted a deliberation on the protection of young audiences, deontology, and the accessibility of programmes on on-demand audiovisual media services (AMSs), replacing the deliberation of 14 December 2010 (see IRIS 2011-2/27). Under Article 1 of the Act of 30 September 1986, the CSA is required to protect young audiences from programmes that might be damaging to their physical, mental or moral development. More particularly, Article 15 of the Act requires it to ensure the implementation of any means...

On 30 November 2011, the audiovisual regulatory authority (Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel - CSA), after obtaining the opinion of the Constitutional Council, adopted a recommendation on the election of the French President, which is to be held on 22 April and 6 May 2012. Under Article 1 of the Act of 30 September 1986, the CSA is responsible for ensuring “observance (…) of the pluralist nature of the expression of currents of thinking and opinion”; Article 16 requires it to adopt a recommendation and to define if necessary the conditions for the production and programming of broadcasts as part...

A company, currently in enforced liquidation, that made available to the public a free on-line digital recording service allowing the downloading of the programmes of the 18 national DTV channels to the service user’s computer, was summoned to appear in court to answer claims of infringement of copyright by a number of these channels, who were holders of intellectual property rights in respect of the programmes. In the initial proceedings, the regional court had allowed their claims and pronounced measures banning the downloading of the programmes at issue. In support of its appeal, the company...

In a judgment of 25 October 2011, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled that claims arising from breaches of personality rights on the internet can also be brought before courts of a member state in which the person concerned has his or her “centre of interests”. It also held that the nature of Article 3 of the E-Commerce Directive (2000/31/EG) was not such that it required transposition in the form of a specific conflict-of-laws rule. Both the Tribunal de grande instance de Paris (Paris Regional Court) (Case C-161/10) and the Bundesgerichtshof (German Federal Court of Justice) (Case C-509/09)...