Copyright law of France

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:.

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 criminal offense [1]. The judgment was based on the right to "private copy" described in the which includes the use of digital media [2].

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.

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