The droit d'auteur (or French copyright law) 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:
Proprietary rights (droits patrimoniaux)
Moral rights (droits moraux)
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. The judgment was based on the right to "private copy" described in the Intellectual Property Code which includes the use of digital media.
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.
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 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.
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 France) (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.
Source: Wiki
