FRANCE Law and Practice Contributed by: Vanessa Bouchara, Adèle Maier and Louise Lacroix, Cabinet Bouchara
3.5 Term of Protection and Termination The duration of economic rights lasts the author’s whole life and up to 70 years after the death of the author. There are no specific cir - cumstances under which French law provides for a non-consensual termination or shortening of rights vested in the author. French law does not establish a different treat - ment for each economic right at issue, nor the type of copyrighted work. However, the following specific rules apply, depending on the authors: • for collaborative works (ie, works involving more than one author), the duration of the economic rights expires 70 years after the death of the last surviving author; • for works published more than 70 years after the death of the author, a period of 25 years of protection begins, with the rights belonging to the owner of the material work; • for works by authors who are declared to have died “for France”, there is an additional protection of 30 years; • for works by anonymous authors, the dura- tion of the rights is 70 years, starting from the publication of the work; and • for collective works, the duration is 70 years from the publication of the work. 3.6 Collective Rights Management Systems The collective management of copyrights was created in France in the 18th century. There are legal societies that manage copyrights on behalf of right-holders for their benefit, whether under legal provisions or a contract. As a matter of principle, the French system allows the existence of several collecting socie -
ties, but there is only one collecting society for each type of work. They mainly manage music and video. These societies can only manage economic rights. The role of collecting societies is to manage copyrights or related rights on behalf of several right-holders for their collective benefit. Collecting societies are required to prepare and make public an annual transparency report, including a special report on the use of amounts deducted for the purpose of providing social, cultural or educational services, resulting from the management of rights under a legal licence or compulsory collective management. In addition, these companies must compile an electronic database of the amount, use and name of the beneficiaries of cultural actions. Collecting societies must also publish updated information on their websites, including their sta - tus, the general regulations, standard contracts and tariffs, the list of members of their manage - ment, administrative and management bodies, the policy for the distribution of sums due to right-holders, the list of representation agree - ments and their signatories, the policy for the management of undistributable sums, and the procedures for handling consents and disputes. At least once a year, they must make information relating to their management available to each of the right-holders to whom they have allocated or paid income from the operation of their rights during the previous financial year. In addition, upon request they must communi - cate the works or other protected objects they represent, the rights they manage (directly or
125 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook