Author

Copyright

The copyright means all the rights given to creators in their literary and artistic works.

The works protected by copyright include: literary works (novels, poems, plays, reference books, newspapers and software), databases, films, musical compositions and choreography works, artistic works such as paintings, drawings, photographs and sculptures, architecture, and advertising creations, maps and technical drawings.

The author of a work has economic rights and in French law a moral right concerning his work.

moral rights involve four essential prerogatives

1. the right to respect for his work (art L121-1 of the Intellectual Property Code) which allows him to oppose any modification, alteration or denaturing of his work
2.  the right for the author to decide on his own whether or not to disclose his work (article L121-2 of the Intellectual Property Code): he decides on the material conditions of its use and the time of distribution
3. the right of paternity (article L111-4 of the Intellectual Property Code) allowing him to require that his name be affixed on the material supports of his work
4. the right of repentance and of withdrawal (article L121-4 of the Intellectual Property Code) allowing him at any time to modify his work (right of repentance) or to stop its exploitation (right of withdrawal)

these personal rights are elusive, perpetual, inalienable and imprescriptible. They are transferable to the heirs of the author.

1. moral rights in community law in the information society

the right of exploitation, which is an exclusive right of the author, includes the right of reproduction and the right of representation of the work. The author enjoys the exclusivity of these rights throughout his life and his beneficiaries, during the seventy years following his death.

1. the right of representation (art. L 122-2 of the Intellectual Property Code) consists in “the communication of the work to the public by any process”
2. the reproduction right (art.L 122-3 of the Intellectual Property Code) consists in “the material fixation of the work by any process which allows it to be communicated to the public in an indirect manner”

1. private and free performances performed exclusively in a family circle
2. copies or reproductions strictly reserved for the private use of the copyist and not intended for collective use.

These exceptions do not apply to databases (Law of July 1, 1998 transposing Directive 96/9 / EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of March 11, 1996 on the legal protection of databases)

They also do not apply to software where article L 122-6-II of the Intellectual Property Code provides as exceptions

1. the copy made for backup purposes provided that this “is necessary to preserve the use of the software”
2. the copy essential for the use of the software “in accordance with its intended purpose, including to correct errors (art. L122-6.1.II of the Intellectual Property Code)

DATA BANKS

Legislative provisions on the RIGHTS OF DATA PRODUCERS

Ideas

Ideas cannot be protected as works of the mind (cf. Cass. 1st civ. October 17, 2000, Sté Eminence c / Sté FCB, BRDA November 15, 2000, p. 8). On the other hand, the reproduction of an idea can constitute an act of parasitism engaging the civil liability of the person who committed the act (CA Paris 8 May 2000, BRDA 19/00 inf. 17)

Case law

Court of Cassation, Commercial Chamber, March 7, 2000 Padovano v company France 2; Paris Court of Appeal, March 1, 2000 Société Allaban Web Systems v SARL Aragorn and others

Doctrine

Competence ratione loci in matters of counterfeiting on the Internet, Caron, Christophe, Communication Electronic commerce, 07/01/2000, pp 25-26

Newspapers

Paris Court of Appeal, May 10, 2000, SA Gestion du Figaro v National Union of Journalists and Others

The journalist, the collective work and the Internet or the misdeeds of radicalism, Caron, Christophe, Communication Commerce électronique, 07/01/2000, pp 23-24

Journalists’ copyright and electronic re-use of their works, Ader, Basile, Légipresse, 01/06/2000, pp 92-93

Haute couture on the Internet, Paris Court of Appeal, October 13, 1999, Frashion TV Company against Christian Dior, Caron, Christophe, Communication Electronic Commerce, 01/01/2000, pp 14-15

Article L 113-2 of the Intellectual Property Code

The notion of collective work or the funnel on the head, Latreille, Antoine, Communication Commerce électronique, 01/05/2000, pp 14-17

World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Copyright Treaty, Geneva, 1996; American Digital Millennium Copyright Act 1998; The Australian Copyright Amendment Digital Agenda Bill 1999

Copyright and Cyberespact

Stéphane Gilker, Copyright and cyberspace – recent developments in Canadian law, in Law and the New Knowledge Economy, Editions Thémis, 2000, p. 31 and s.