Copyright law of France
The first privilege granted in France was given by Henri II in 1551 to Guillaume de Morlaye, his lute player.
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.
[1] 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.
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,[1] defending the "spiritual interest of the collectivity".
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.
New discussions were undertaken during the Vichy regime, initiated by a corporatist body,[1] presided over by three jurists, François Hepp, René Dommange, and Paul Lerebours-Pigeonnières.
[1] Hepp and Dommange had been at the forefront of the battle against Jean Zay's draft law during the Popular Front.
Extended debate in the Fourth Republic led to a modernized law along the lines of the Vichy proposals with Act No.
[2][3] Among other changes, this act introduced various neighbouring rights and increased the length of intellectual property protection for musical compositions to life of the author plus 70 years.
Because the related EU directive required implementation by July 1, 1995, the new authors' rights term was given retroactive effect to that date.
[7] The judgment was based on the right to "private copy" described in the Intellectual Property Code [fr] which includes the use of digital media.
[8] On 7 March 2006, the National Assembly passed the DADVSI Act which implemented—with some modifications—the 2001 Information Society directive of the European Union.
The DADVSI act makes peer-to-peer sharing of property rights' protected works an offense.
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.
"[14] Since October 7, 2016, article L122-5 of the French Code of Intellectual Property provides for a limited freedom of panorama for works of architecture and sculpture.
Two separate court decisions in 1990 ruled that unauthorized postcards depicting Grande Arche and La Géode as principal subjects constitute infringements.
Other monumental works protected by copyright include the Louvre Pyramid, the Opéra Bastille, and the new buildings of the Bibliothèque nationale de France.
[17] CEVM (Compagnie Eiffage du Viaduc de Millau), the exclusive beneficiary of all property rights of Millau Viaduct on behalf of its architect Norman Foster, in their website explicitly requires that professional and/or commercial uses of images of the bridge are subject to "prior express permission of the CEVM".
Additionally, CEVM has the sole right to distribute images of the viaduct in souvenir items such as postcards.
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 70 years after the date of publication (art.
These societies typically operate as associations, and are regulated by the Code de la propriété intellectuelle (arts.
Contrary to the position in most Common Law jurisdictions, the breach of proprietary rights is a criminal offense in France: contrefaçon (Arts.
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 organised group (bande organisée).
Hence the conflict of laws provisions of the Berne Convention will be used in determining the applicability of the French Code de la propriété intellectuelle.
[29] Nonetheless, In the United States of America, moral rights are explicitly recognized for works of visual art.
[30] As regards the management of patrimonial rights, the difference between copyright and droit d'auteur is not so clear as in both system the producer controls the exploiting of the work.
The authorship is granted to natural persons (co-author) that have created the relevant work: scriptwriter, author of the musical composition etc.
In the United States of America, labor law governs the relations between "creators" and production companies.
