French copyright law
Encyclopedia
The droit d'auteur developed in the 18th century at the same time as copyright
developed in the United Kingdom
. Based on the "right of the author" (droit d'auteur) instead of on "copyright", its philosophy and terminology are different from those used in copyright law in common law
jurisdictions. It has been very influential in the development of copyright laws in other civil law
jurisdictions, and in the development of international copyright law such as the Berne Convention
.
French copyright law is defined in the Code de la propriété intellectuelle, which implements European copyright law (directives). Unless otherwise stated, references to individual articles are to the Code de la propriété intellectuelle. Two distinct sets of rights are defined:.
The controversial DADVSI
act was due to reform French copyright law in spring 2006. This law, voted by the French Parliament on June 30, 2006, implements the 2001 EU Copyright Directive; however, there existed considerable differences of opinion as to how to implement the directive, in many respects.
On 8 December 2005 the Tribunal de grande instance de Paris concluded that file sharing through peer-to-peer was not a crime http://www.juriscom.net/documents/tgiparis20051208.pdf. The judgment was based on the right to "private copy" described in the Intellectual Property Code which includes the use of digital media http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/html/codes_traduits/cpialtext.htm.
On 7 March 2006, however, the National Assembly
passed the DADVSI Act
which implemented—with some modifications—the 2001 European Union Copyright directive. The DADVSI act makes peer-to-peer
sharing of copyrighted works an offense. It does, however, allow for sharing of private copies of tape recording
and other media.
", which differs from Anglo-American copyright
, finds its roots in the practice of printing patent
s and royal privilege
s, which first appeared in the 16th century and became common in the 17th century . The privilege concerned the publication
rights to authors' works, rather than authors' rights per se. The first privilege granted in France was given by Henri II
in 1551 to Guillaume Morlay, his luth player . Through this system of royal privileges, the King granted monopolies
to specific editors, and implemented a system of censorship
. Privileges were then very short (3 to 10 years), after which the work entered the public domain
. The Moulins ordinance of 1566, the first piece of legislation to impose to librarians and editors the request of a printing patent, did not make any mention of authors .
Despite this regime which privileged editors over authors, some of the latter succeeded in obtaining privileges for their works. During the Muret Affair, in 1568, the lawyer Marion pleaded for a complete and unrestricted right of property of the author on his work, and intellectual property
thus entered the French jurisprudence
.
At the same time, the practice of remunerating authors by some percentage became common during the 17th century . Playwrights, including Corneille
, started to defend their rights because at that time, once a play was published, any troupe could play it without paying anything to its creator . The King thus arbitrated between the rival interests of editors and creators, giving his preference to the former .
In 1761, a court decision granted to Jean de La Fontaine
's granddaughters the right of ownership of La Fontaine's work, legitimized by the right of inheritance
. In 1777, two other court decisions limited the publisher's right, which was restricted to the life-time of the author .
Following the abolition of privileges on the night of 4 August 1789, during the French Revolution
, the National Convention
enacted new legislation on the matter . A draft law was proposed by the Abbé Sieyès, which, although allegedly inspired by Condorcet
's pamphlet
titled Fragments sur la liberté de la presse (Fragments on liberty of the press, 1776), aimed at struggling against the spread of licentious ideas by imposing responsibility for their diffusion on authors, publishers and librarians . Sieyès and Condorcet also advanced the idea of "limited privilege," against perpetual privileges
, thus preparing the inclusion in the public domain of the works of Racine
, Molière
, Rousseau, Voltaire
, etc. According to Anne Latournerie, "The first revolutionary attempt to provide to authors a legal recognition of their rights on their texts was therefore not the search of a freedom for authors, but rather the exigency of a responsibility."
Finally, after a controversy concerning dramatic authors, and their rebellion, led by Beaumarchais, these preliminaries resulted in the July 19, 1793 Chénier Act
. The July 14, 1866 Act extends the rights until fifty years after the death of the author.
Debates continued throughout the 19th century - notably, between Lamartine and Proudhon - and the inter-war period. As early as August 1936 during the Popular Front
, the Minister of National Education and of the Beaux-Arts Jean Zay
proposed a draft law based on a new philosophy of the author as an "intellectual worker" (travailleur intellectuel) rather than as an "owner" (propriétaire). Jean Zay placed himself in a moral continuum with Alfred de Vigny
, Augustin-Charles Renouard and Proudhon , defending the "spiritual interest of the collectivity" . Article 21 of his draft divided the 50 years post-mortem protection period into two different phases, one of 10 years and the other of 40 years which established a sort of legal licence suppressing the right of exclusivity granted to a specific editor . Zay's draft project was particularly opposed by the editor Bernard Grasset, who defended the right of the editor as a "creator of value" , while many writers, including Jules Romains
and the president of the Société des Gens de Lettres
, Jean Vignaud, supported Zay's draft . The draft did not succeed, however, in being voted in before the end of the legislature in 1939.
New discussions were undertaken during the Vichy regime, initiated by a corporatist body , presided over by three jurists, François Hepp, René Dommange, and Paul Lerebours-Pigeonnières . Both Hepp and Dommange had been at the forefront of the battle against Jean Zay's draft law during the Popular Front .
During the Fourth Republic
, 13 years of debate culminated in the modernization of the law with the March 11, 1957 Act, which was in the mold of the Vichy proposals — a continuity proudly highlighted by François Hepp . A Commission had been created in August 1944, presided over by the jurist Jean Escarra
, who had co-signed in 1937 an essay with François Hepp and Jean Reault, published by Grasset, which harshly criticized Jean Zay's draft project .
In 1997, a court decision outlawed the publication on the Internet of Raymond Queneau
's Hundred Thousand Billion Poems
, an interactive poem or sort of machine to produce poems . The court decided that the son of Queneau and the Gallimard editions possessed an exclusive and moral right on this poem, thus outlawing any publication of it on the Internet and possibility for the reader to play Queneau's interactive game of poem construction .
In March 2006, the controversial DADVSI Act
, which implements - including modifications - the 2001 EU Copyright directive will be voted on by the National Parliament .
The copyright protection of computer programs was, and to some extent still is, the subject of much debate in France. Patent protection was first excluded by Loi n°68-1 du 2 janvier 1968 sur les brevets d'invention and defined in copyright by Loi n°85-660 du 3 juillet 1985 relative aux droits d'auteur et aux droits des artistes-interprètes, des producteurs de phonogrammes et de vidéogrammes et des entreprises de communication audiovisuelle. The legal position was resolved by the transposition of May 14, 1991 EU Directive into French law: computer programs and any associated preparatory works qualify for copyright protection in France as in other European Union jurisdictions. Databases are protected by a related sui generis
right
.
The term "author" is used to designate the original creator(s) of any type of protected work, e.g., the artist, photographer, director, architect, etc. Where the author cannot be identified, e.g., for anonymous works and collective works, the copyright is exercised by the original publisher.
The author may transfer his or her proprietary rights to a third party.
) (Art. L123-10). The author is deemed to have died on 31 December of the year of death.
Before February 2007, the periods of World War I
and World War II
were not taken into account for the determination of the expiry date of proprietary rights, with peculiar ways of counting these (Arts. L123-8 & L123-9). These exceptions applied to works published before and during the wars, and must be added whatever the date of the author's death. These extensions were removed (for non-musical works) by the Court of Cassation
in February 2007. They still have to be added to the 70 years delay for musical works, because of a 1985 law.
For collaborative works, the date of death of the last collaborator serves as the reference point for the 70 year post mortem auctoris period (Art. L123-2). Audiovisual works are treated similarly, although the list of collaborators is defined by the law: scriptwriter, lyricist, composer, director.
Proprietary rights in pseudonymous, anonymous or collective works last for seventy (70) years after the date of publication (Art. L123-3).
For phonographic works, the proprietary rights last for 50 years after the date of recording.
In addition, posthumous works are copyrighted 25 years from the year of publication.
, and are regulated by the Code de la propriété intellectuelle (Arts. L321-1 to L321-13) and the Ministry of Culture. The most important are:
The moral rights of the author may conflict with the property rights of the owner of the work, for example an architect who tries to prevent modifications to a building he designed. Such conflicts are resolved on a case by case basis, and recent jurisprudence has led to a weakening of certain moral rights (notably the right to the respect of the work).
The moral rights are inalienable, perpetual and inviolable. They pass to the author's heirs or executor on the author's death, but may not be otherwise transferred or sold under any circumstances, by either the author or his legal successors. Any agreement to waive an author's moral rights is null and void, although the author cannot be forced to protect his work.
Once a work has been published, the author cannot prevent:
There is no specific provision for government works or laws: the copyright is normally held by the relevant public body.
provisions of the Berne Convention will be used in determining the applicability of the French Code de la propriété intellectuelle.
Copyright
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
developed in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. Based on the "right of the author" (droit d'auteur) instead of on "copyright", its philosophy and terminology are different from those used in copyright law in common law
Common law
Common law is law developed by judges through decisions of courts and similar tribunals rather than through legislative statutes or executive branch action...
jurisdictions. It has been very influential in the development of copyright laws in other civil law
Civil law (legal system)
Civil law is a legal system inspired by Roman law and whose primary feature is that laws are codified into collections, as compared to common law systems that gives great precedential weight to common law on the principle that it is unfair to treat similar facts differently on different...
jurisdictions, and in the development of international copyright law such as the Berne Convention
Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works
The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, usually known as the Berne Convention, is an international agreement governing copyright, which was first accepted in Berne, Switzerland in 1886.- Content :...
.
French copyright law is defined in the Code de la propriété intellectuelle, which implements European copyright law (directives). Unless otherwise stated, references to individual articles are to the Code de la propriété intellectuelle. Two distinct sets of rights are defined:.
- Proprietary rights (droits patrimoniaux)
- Moral rights (droits moraux)
The controversial DADVSI
DADVSI
DADVSI is the abbreviation of the French Loi sur le Droit d’Auteur et les Droits Voisins dans la Société de l’Information...
act was due to reform French copyright law in spring 2006. This law, voted by the French Parliament on June 30, 2006, implements the 2001 EU Copyright Directive; however, there existed considerable differences of opinion as to how to implement the directive, in many respects.
On 8 December 2005 the Tribunal de grande instance de Paris concluded that file sharing through peer-to-peer was not a crime http://www.juriscom.net/documents/tgiparis20051208.pdf. The judgment was based on the right to "private copy" described in the Intellectual Property Code which includes the use of digital media http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/html/codes_traduits/cpialtext.htm.
On 7 March 2006, however, the National Assembly
French National Assembly
The French National Assembly is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of France under the Fifth Republic. The upper house is the Senate ....
passed the DADVSI Act
DADVSI
DADVSI is the abbreviation of the French Loi sur le Droit d’Auteur et les Droits Voisins dans la Société de l’Information...
which implemented—with some modifications—the 2001 European Union Copyright directive. The DADVSI act makes peer-to-peer
Peer-to-peer
Peer-to-peer computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads among peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the application...
sharing of copyrighted works an offense. It does, however, allow for sharing of private copies of tape recording
Magnetic tape
Magnetic tape is a medium for magnetic recording, made of a thin magnetizable coating on a long, narrow strip of plastic. It was developed in Germany, based on magnetic wire recording. Devices that record and play back audio and video using magnetic tape are tape recorders and video tape recorders...
and other media.
History
The concept of "right of the authorAuthor
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
", which differs from Anglo-American copyright
Copyright
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
, finds its roots in the practice of printing patent
Printing patent
The printing patent or printing privilege was a precursor of modern copyright. It was an exclusive right to print a work or a class work of works....
s and royal privilege
Privilege
A privilege is a special entitlement to immunity granted by the state or another authority to a restricted group, either by birth or on a conditional basis. It can be revoked in certain circumstances. In modern democratic states, a privilege is conditional and granted only after birth...
s, which first appeared in the 16th century and became common in the 17th century . The privilege concerned the publication
Publication
To publish is to make content available to the public. While specific use of the term may vary among countries, it is usually applied to text, images, or other audio-visual content on any medium, including paper or electronic publishing forms such as websites, e-books, Compact Discs and MP3s...
rights to authors' works, rather than authors' rights per se. The first privilege granted in France was given by Henri II
Henry II of France
Henry II was King of France from 31 March 1547 until his death in 1559.-Early years:Henry was born in the royal Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, near Paris, the son of Francis I and Claude, Duchess of Brittany .His father was captured at the Battle of Pavia in 1525 by his sworn enemy,...
in 1551 to Guillaume Morlay, his luth player . Through this system of royal privileges, the King granted monopolies
Monopoly
A monopoly exists when a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity...
to specific editors, and implemented a system of censorship
Censorship in France
France has a long history of governmental censorship, particularly in the 16th to 18th centuries, but today freedom of press is guaranteed by the French Constitution and instances of governmental censorship are relatively limited and isolated....
. Privileges were then very short (3 to 10 years), after which the work entered the public domain
Public domain
Works are in the public domain if the intellectual property rights have expired, if the intellectual property rights are forfeited, or if they are not covered by intellectual property rights at all...
. The Moulins ordinance of 1566, the first piece of legislation to impose to librarians and editors the request of a printing patent, did not make any mention of authors .
Despite this regime which privileged editors over authors, some of the latter succeeded in obtaining privileges for their works. During the Muret Affair, in 1568, the lawyer Marion pleaded for a complete and unrestricted right of property of the author on his work, and intellectual property
Intellectual property
Intellectual property is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized—and the corresponding fields of law...
thus entered the French jurisprudence
Jurisprudence
Jurisprudence is the theory and philosophy of law. Scholars of jurisprudence, or legal theorists , hope to obtain a deeper understanding of the nature of law, of legal reasoning, legal systems and of legal institutions...
.
At the same time, the practice of remunerating authors by some percentage became common during the 17th century . Playwrights, including Corneille
Pierre Corneille
Pierre Corneille was a French tragedian who was one of the three great seventeenth-century French dramatists, along with Molière and Racine...
, started to defend their rights because at that time, once a play was published, any troupe could play it without paying anything to its creator . The King thus arbitrated between the rival interests of editors and creators, giving his preference to the former .
In 1761, a court decision granted to Jean de La Fontaine
Jean de La Fontaine
Jean de La Fontaine was the most famous French fabulist and one of the most widely read French poets of the 17th century. He is known above all for his Fables, which provided a model for subsequent fabulists across Europe and numerous alternative versions in France, and in French regional...
's granddaughters the right of ownership of La Fontaine's work, legitimized by the right of inheritance
Inheritance
Inheritance is the practice of passing on property, titles, debts, rights and obligations upon the death of an individual. It has long played an important role in human societies...
. In 1777, two other court decisions limited the publisher's right, which was restricted to the life-time of the author .
Following the abolition of privileges on the night of 4 August 1789, during the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
, the National Convention
National Convention
During the French Revolution, the National Convention or Convention, in France, comprised the constitutional and legislative assembly which sat from 20 September 1792 to 26 October 1795 . It held executive power in France during the first years of the French First Republic...
enacted new legislation on the matter . A draft law was proposed by the Abbé Sieyès, which, although allegedly inspired by Condorcet
Marquis de Condorcet
Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas de Caritat, marquis de Condorcet , known as Nicolas de Condorcet, was a French philosopher, mathematician, and early political scientist whose Condorcet method in voting tally selects the candidate who would beat each of the other candidates in a run-off election...
's pamphlet
Pamphlet
A pamphlet is an unbound booklet . It may consist of a single sheet of paper that is printed on both sides and folded in half, in thirds, or in fourths , or it may consist of a few pages that are folded in half and saddle stapled at the crease to make a simple book...
titled Fragments sur la liberté de la presse (Fragments on liberty of the press, 1776), aimed at struggling against the spread of licentious ideas by imposing responsibility for their diffusion on authors, publishers and librarians . Sieyès and Condorcet also advanced the idea of "limited privilege," against perpetual privileges
Perpetual copyright
Perpetual copyright can refer to a copyright without a finite term, or to a copyright whose finite term is perpetually extended. Perpetual copyright in the former sense is highly uncommon, as the current laws of all countries with copyright statutes set a standard limit on the duration, based...
, thus preparing the inclusion in the public domain of the works of Racine
Jean Racine
Jean Racine , baptismal name Jean-Baptiste Racine , was a French dramatist, one of the "Big Three" of 17th-century France , and one of the most important literary figures in the Western tradition...
, Molière
Molière
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known by his stage name Molière, was a French playwright and actor who is considered to be one of the greatest masters of comedy in Western literature...
, Rousseau, Voltaire
Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet , better known by the pen name Voltaire , was a French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit and for his advocacy of civil liberties, including freedom of religion, free trade and separation of church and state...
, etc. According to Anne Latournerie, "The first revolutionary attempt to provide to authors a legal recognition of their rights on their texts was therefore not the search of a freedom for authors, but rather the exigency of a responsibility."
Finally, after a controversy concerning dramatic authors, and their rebellion, led by Beaumarchais, these preliminaries resulted in the July 19, 1793 Chénier Act
André Chénier
André Marie Chénier was a French poet, associated with the events of the French Revolution of which he was a victim. His sensual, emotive poetry marks him as one of the precursors of the Romantic movement...
. The July 14, 1866 Act extends the rights until fifty years after the death of the author.
Debates continued throughout the 19th century - notably, between Lamartine and Proudhon - and the inter-war period. As early as August 1936 during the Popular Front
Popular Front (France)
The Popular Front was an alliance of left-wing movements, including the French Communist Party , the French Section of the Workers' International and the Radical and Socialist Party, during the interwar period...
, the Minister of National Education and of the Beaux-Arts Jean Zay
Jean Zay
Jean Zay is a French politician born in Orléans on 6 August 1904 and assassinated 20 June 1944 by the miliciens in Molles . He was the Minister of National Education and Fine Arts from 1936 until 1939....
proposed a draft law based on a new philosophy of the author as an "intellectual worker" (travailleur intellectuel) rather than as an "owner" (propriétaire). Jean Zay placed himself in a moral continuum with Alfred de Vigny
Alfred de Vigny
Alfred Victor de Vigny was a French poet, playwright, and novelist.-Life:Alfred de Vigny was born in Loches into an aristocratic family...
, Augustin-Charles Renouard and Proudhon , defending the "spiritual interest of the collectivity" . Article 21 of his draft divided the 50 years post-mortem protection period into two different phases, one of 10 years and the other of 40 years which established a sort of legal licence suppressing the right of exclusivity granted to a specific editor . Zay's draft project was particularly opposed by the editor Bernard Grasset, who defended the right of the editor as a "creator of value" , while many writers, including Jules Romains
Jules Romains
Jules Romains, born Louis Henri Jean Farigoule , was a French poet and writer and the founder of the Unanimism literary movement...
and the president of the Société des Gens de Lettres
Société des gens de lettres
The Sociéte des gens de lettres de France is a writers' association founded in 1838 by the notable French authors Honoré de Balzac, Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, and George Sand...
, Jean Vignaud, supported Zay's draft . The draft did not succeed, however, in being voted in before the end of the legislature in 1939.
New discussions were undertaken during the Vichy regime, initiated by a corporatist body , presided over by three jurists, François Hepp, René Dommange, and Paul Lerebours-Pigeonnières . Both Hepp and Dommange had been at the forefront of the battle against Jean Zay's draft law during the Popular Front .
During the Fourth Republic
French Fourth Republic
The French Fourth Republic was the republican government of France between 1946 and 1958, governed by the fourth republican constitution. It was in many ways a revival of the Third Republic, which was in place before World War II, and suffered many of the same problems...
, 13 years of debate culminated in the modernization of the law with the March 11, 1957 Act, which was in the mold of the Vichy proposals — a continuity proudly highlighted by François Hepp . A Commission had been created in August 1944, presided over by the jurist Jean Escarra
Jean Escarra
Jean Escarra , French legal scholar, consultant of the Chinese government and professor at the Faculté de Droit de Paris....
, who had co-signed in 1937 an essay with François Hepp and Jean Reault, published by Grasset, which harshly criticized Jean Zay's draft project .
In 1997, a court decision outlawed the publication on the Internet of Raymond Queneau
Raymond Queneau
Raymond Queneau was a French poet and novelist and the co-founder of Ouvroir de littérature potentielle .-Biography:Born in Le Havre, Seine-Maritime, Queneau was the only child of Auguste Queneau and Joséphine Mignot...
's Hundred Thousand Billion Poems
Hundred Thousand Billion Poems
Raymond Queneau’s Hundred Thousand Billion Poems or One hundred million million poems , published in 1961 , is a set of ten sonnets. They are printed on card with each line on a separated strip, like a heads-bodies-and-legs book...
, an interactive poem or sort of machine to produce poems . The court decided that the son of Queneau and the Gallimard editions possessed an exclusive and moral right on this poem, thus outlawing any publication of it on the Internet and possibility for the reader to play Queneau's interactive game of poem construction .
In March 2006, the controversial DADVSI Act
DADVSI
DADVSI is the abbreviation of the French Loi sur le Droit d’Auteur et les Droits Voisins dans la Société de l’Information...
, which implements - including modifications - the 2001 EU Copyright directive will be voted on by the National Parliament .
Protected works
The criterion for protection of a work under French copyright law is that it be an œuvre de l'esprit, a work of the mind (Art. L112-1). Hence there must be a human intellectual contribution to the work. A list of types of work which are protected is given in Art. L112-2: this list (taken from the Berne Convention) is not limitative.The copyright protection of computer programs was, and to some extent still is, the subject of much debate in France. Patent protection was first excluded by Loi n°68-1 du 2 janvier 1968 sur les brevets d'invention and defined in copyright by Loi n°85-660 du 3 juillet 1985 relative aux droits d'auteur et aux droits des artistes-interprètes, des producteurs de phonogrammes et de vidéogrammes et des entreprises de communication audiovisuelle. The legal position was resolved by the transposition of May 14, 1991 EU Directive into French law: computer programs and any associated preparatory works qualify for copyright protection in France as in other European Union jurisdictions. Databases are protected by a related sui generis
Sui generis
Sui generis is a Latin expression, literally meaning of its own kind/genus or unique in its characteristics. The expression is often used in analytic philosophy to indicate an idea, an entity, or a reality which cannot be included in a wider concept....
right
Database rights
In European Union law, database rights are specifically coded laws on the copying and dissemination of information in computer databases...
.
The term "author" is used to designate the original creator(s) of any type of protected work, e.g., the artist, photographer, director, architect, etc. Where the author cannot be identified, e.g., for anonymous works and collective works, the copyright is exercised by the original publisher.
Proprietary rights
The proprietary rights of the author allow him or her to exploit the work for financial gain. The author has the right to authorize the reproduction of the work (droit de reproduction) and to allow its public performance (droit de représentation): he or she may also prevent the reproduction or public performance.The author may transfer his or her proprietary rights to a third party.
Duration of proprietary rights
The general rule is that the proprietary rights of the author last for seventy (70) years after his or her death (Art. L123-1), or for one hundred (100) years after the author's death if the author is declared to have died on active service (mort pour la FranceMort pour la France
Mort pour la France is a term used in the French legal system for people who died during a conflict, usually in service of the country.- Definition :...
) (Art. L123-10). The author is deemed to have died on 31 December of the year of death.
Before February 2007, the periods of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
and World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
were not taken into account for the determination of the expiry date of proprietary rights, with peculiar ways of counting these (Arts. L123-8 & L123-9). These exceptions applied to works published before and during the wars, and must be added whatever the date of the author's death. These extensions were removed (for non-musical works) by the Court of Cassation
Court of Cassation (France)
The French Supreme Court of Judicature is France's court of last resort having jurisdiction over all matters triable in the judicial stream but only scope of review to determine a miscarriage of justice or certify a question of law based solely on points of law...
in February 2007. They still have to be added to the 70 years delay for musical works, because of a 1985 law.
For collaborative works, the date of death of the last collaborator serves as the reference point for the 70 year post mortem auctoris period (Art. L123-2). Audiovisual works are treated similarly, although the list of collaborators is defined by the law: scriptwriter, lyricist, composer, director.
Proprietary rights in pseudonymous, anonymous or collective works last for seventy (70) years after the date of publication (Art. L123-3).
For phonographic works, the proprietary rights last for 50 years after the date of recording.
In addition, posthumous works are copyrighted 25 years from the year of publication.
Copyright management societies
As in other countries, there are a number of societies which collectively manage the licensing of different types of work and the collection of royalties on behalf of copyright holders. These societies typically operate as associationsVoluntary association
A voluntary association or union is a group of individuals who enter into an agreement as volunteers to form a body to accomplish a purpose.Strictly speaking, in many jurisdictions no formalities are necessary to start an association...
, and are regulated by the Code de la propriété intellectuelle (Arts. L321-1 to L321-13) and the Ministry of Culture. The most important are:
- Centre Français d'Exploitation du droit de copie (CFC)
- SacemSociété des auteurs, compositeurs et éditeurs de musiqueSociété des auteurs, compositeurs et éditeurs de musique is a French professional association collecting payments of artists’ rights and distributing the rights to the original songwriters, composers and music publishers.-History:...
- ADAGP
- SACD
Moral rights
French copyright law treats a protected work as an extension of the personality of the author which is protected by a certain number of moral rights. In general, the author has the right to "the respect of his name, of his status as author, and of his work" (Art. L121-1). The following rights are usually recognised:- right of publication (droit de divulgation): the author is the sole judge as to when the work may be first made available to the public (Art. L121-2).
- right of attribution (droit de paternité): the author has the right to insist that his name and his authorship are clearly stated.
- right to the respect of the work's integrity (droit au respect de l'intégrité de l'oeuvre): the author can prevent any modification to the work.
- right of withdrawal (droit de retrait et de repentir): the author can prevent further reproduction, distribution or representation in return for compensation paid to the distributor of the work for the damage done to him (Art. L121-4).
- right to protection of honour and reputation (droit à s'opposer à toute atteinte préjudiciable à l'honneur et à la réputation).
The moral rights of the author may conflict with the property rights of the owner of the work, for example an architect who tries to prevent modifications to a building he designed. Such conflicts are resolved on a case by case basis, and recent jurisprudence has led to a weakening of certain moral rights (notably the right to the respect of the work).
The moral rights are inalienable, perpetual and inviolable. They pass to the author's heirs or executor on the author's death, but may not be otherwise transferred or sold under any circumstances, by either the author or his legal successors. Any agreement to waive an author's moral rights is null and void, although the author cannot be forced to protect his work.
The public domain under French copyright law
A work enters the public domain (domaine public) once the proprietary rights over it have expired. It may then be used without charge, so long as the moral rights of the author are respected. Notably, the name of the author and the original title of the work must be cited.Exceptions
Art. L122-5 defines the exceptions to French copyright law, which are relatively restricted.Once a work has been published, the author cannot prevent:
- 1. Private family performances.
- 2. Copies for the private and personal use of the copier. This provision does not apply to works of art, computer programs (where a single safeguard copy is allowed, Art. L122-6-1-II) and databases.
- 3. In cases where the name of the author and the source are clearly indicated,
- a) Analyses and short citations justified by the critical, polemical, scientific or pedagogical nature of the work.
- b) Press reviews.
- c) Diffusion of public speeches as current news.
- d) Reproductions of works of art in catalogues for auctions in France (subject to regulatory restrictions).
- 4. Parody, pastiche and caricature, "taking into account the usage of the genre".
- 5. Acts necessary to access a database within the limits of the agreed use.
There is no specific provision for government works or laws: the copyright is normally held by the relevant public body.
Penal measures
Contrary to the position in most Common Law jurisdictions, the breach of proprietary rights is a criminal offense in France: contrefaçon (Arts. L335-2 to L335-4). This attracts a fine of up to 300,000 Euros (approx. US$375,150, or £247,100 as of July 2010) and a term of up to three (3) years imprisonment. These penalties are increased to a fine of up to €500,000 and a term of up to five (5) years imprisonment if the offense is committed in an organized group (bande organisée). There is no distinction between the breach of French copyright and the breach of foreign copyright, though the breach must occur in France to be punishable. The import of infringing copies into France, and the distribution of such copies, are punished under the same provisions and are subject to the same penalties.Relation to international copyright law
Under Art. 55 of the Constitution of 1958, a ratified treaty is superior to French domestic law. Hence the conflict of lawsConflict of laws
Conflict of laws is a set of procedural rules that determines which legal system and which jurisdiction's applies to a given dispute...
provisions of the Berne Convention will be used in determining the applicability of the French Code de la propriété intellectuelle.
See also
- Copyright law of the European UnionCopyright law of the European UnionThe copyright law of the European Union has arisen in an attempt to harmonise the differing copyright laws of European Union member states. It consists of a number of directives, which the member states are obliged to enact into their national laws, and by the judgments of the Court of Justice of...
- December 22, 2005 last-minute amendments legalizing peer-to-peer exchanges in the frame of the DADVSI Act implementing the 2001 EU Copyright Directive
- French Intellectual Property CodeFrench Intellectual Property CodeThe French Intellectual Property Code , is a corpus of law relative to the intellectual and industrial property...
External links
- Code de la propriété intellectuelle (official site)
- French Intellectual Property Code (semi-official translation)
- French Intellectual Property Code (WIPO translation)
- Siffloter "L'Internationale" peut coûter cher, Le Monde, 9.04.05 The music to The InternationaleThe InternationaleThe Internationale is a famous socialist, communist, social-democratic and anarchist anthem.The Internationale became the anthem of international socialism, and gained particular fame under the Soviet Union from 1922 to 1944, when it was that communist state's de facto central anthem...
will remain under copyright in France (but not in the USA) until 2014.