Case Law, CJEU, European Union, France

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In its jugment of 30 April 2024 (C-470/21), the Court of Justice of the European Union answered three questions referred by the French Administrative Supreme Court (‘Conseil d’Etat’), that can be summed up as follows: must Article 15(1) of Directive 2002/58 on privacy and electronic communications be interpreted as precluding national legislation which authorises the…

Artificial Intelligence (AI), France, Remuneration (equitable), Text and Data Mining (TDM)

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In a statement made on 12 October 2023, the French collecting society Sacem, which represents most authors/composers and publishers of music in France, announced that it is opting out of machine learning training for the works in its repertoire. Sacem explains that it is basing its opt-out from generative AI systems on Article L122-5-3 of…

Case Law, France, Infringement, Originality

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In a case between Google and the creator of the font used by the French newspaper Le Monde, the Paris Court of First Instance (‘Tribunal Judiciaire’) has handed down a judgment in which it ruled that the font created for the newspaper is original and thus protected by copyright, even though it found that Google’s…

CDSM Directive, Digital Single Market, France, Performers' Rights, Remuneration (equitable)

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Order no. 2021-580 of 12 May 2021 (‘transposition Order’) of the French Government implements articles 2(6) and 17 to 23 of the EU Directive 2019/790 on copyright and related rights in the Digital Single Market (‘CDSM’). In a ruling of 15 November 2022, the French administrative Supreme Court annulled the transposition Order to the extent that it does…

Case Law, CDSM Directive, Digital Single Market, France, Legislative process, Remuneration (equitable)

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The Conseil d’Etat, the French administrative Supreme Court, handed down an important ruling on 15 November 2022 which annuls Order no. 2021-580 of 12 May 2021 (‘2021 Order’) of the French Government that implements articles 2(6) and 17 to 23 of the EU Directive 2019/790 on copyright and related rights in the Digital Single Market…

France, Infringement, Jurisdiction

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Act no. 2021-1382 of 25 October 2021 on the regulation and protection of access to cultural works in the digital age has been published in the Official Journal. It modifies the French Intellectual Property Code (‘IPC’). The Act creates ‘ARCOM’ (the Authority for the regulation of audiovisual and digital communication), a new regulatory authority with…

Case Law, Exceptions and Limitations, France, Infringement

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Like most copyright systems, French copyright law does not leave much room for the freedom of authors of transformative graphic works (also called “derivative works”). Three interesting cases on derivative works, two involving Jeff Koons and one Tintin, have recently put French copyright law in the international spotlight (e.g. here and here). The American transformative…

Case Law, CDSM Directive, Digital Single Market, France, Press Publishers ’ Right, Remuneration (equitable)

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As I posted previously on this blog (here), French press publishers’ unions and the news agency Agence France Presse (‘AFP’) filed a successful request for an interim injunction against Google before the French Competition Authority, in their battle to obtain remuneration for online uses of their publications (Decision 20-MC-01 of 9 April 2020). Google had been manoeuvring…

Case Law, CJEU, European Union, France, Infringement, Software

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The Court of Justice of the EU has handed down its judgment (18 December 2019, Case C-666/18) following the request for a preliminary ruling from the Paris Court of Appeal (IT Development v Free Mobile, 16 October 2018, No 17/02679; see our post here). In answer to the question: does the breach of a software…