Audiovisual

  • France – Publication of the Boutonnat Report related to funding of audiovisual and cinematographic creation

    The Minister for Culture published on 13 May 2019 the Boutonnat Report related to private sector funding of cinema and audiovisual production and distribution.

    The mission delegated on 17 May 2018 to Dominique Boutonnat, a producer, by the Minister for Culture, the Minister for Economy and the Minister for Public Expenses, conducted its research between June and November 2018, auditing private and public actors from the field of cinema and audiovisual creation.

    The Report, written in December 2018, makes various recommendations aimed at promoting private investment in cinematographic and audiovisual creation to enable French production companies to compete with new production and distribution patterns. It also aims to develop further on multi-canal exploitation of the works to benefit from the profits made from their exploitation to finance the creation of future works.

    The Report suggests leaning upon the existing structures dedicated to funding as well as upon the new ones provided in application of the new PACTE Law.

    The Report also puts an emphasis on modernizing the functioning of the Cinema and Audiovisual Registry and on favoring a blockchain system and the use of smart contracts relating to the multiple chains of titles resulting from assignment and/or licensing agreements which are very usual in this field

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    In the light of these recommendations, the government wishes to launch a "Summit of cultural and creative industries" and announced the implementation of new funding facilities by the end of the year.

  • European Union – Publication of Directive establishing new rules facilitating cross online TV and radio content

    New Directive 2019/789 laying down rules on the exercise of copyright and related rights applicable to certain online transmissions of broadcasting organizations and retransmissions of television and radio programs, approved by the Council of the European Union on 15 April 2019, was published in the OJEU on 17 May 2019 (please see Legislative and Regulatory updates – April 2019).

    The Directive enters into force on 6 June 2019 and Member States shall implement it into their domestic legal framework by 7 June 2021.

Automotive

  • France - Clarification by the PACTE law of the experimentation conditions and of the criminal liability rules applicable to vehicles with driving delegation

    The article 125 of the PACTE law amends the ordinance No. 2016-1057 dated 3 August 2016 on the experimentation on public roads of vehicles with driving delegation.

    This article specifies the conditions for the experimentation of vehicles with driving delegation. The necessary authorisation for the use of vehicles with driving delegation for experimental purposes on the public road is only granted if the driving delegation system can be neutralized or deactivated by the driver at any time. If the driver is located outside the vehicle, he/she must be ready to take control of the vehicle at any time.

    The PACTE law specifies that only vehicles with driving delegation used for a public passenger transport service may operate on collective transport lanes. For other vehicles, this possibility is subject to the assent of the competent traffic police authority and of the transport organizing authority.

    The PACTE law also clarifies the criminal liability regime applicable to vehicles with driving delegation.

    When the vehicle's driving delegation system is activated and operates properly, the driver is not criminally liable for offences that he/she commits in the driving of the vehicle within the meaning of Article L121-1 of the French Highway Code.

    However, the driver becomes criminally liable again following the solicitation of the driving system and at the end of a period specified in the experimentation authorisation to take back control of the vehicle. The driver is also liable when he/she ignored the obvious circumstance that the conditions for using the driving delegation system were not or no longer met when it was activated.

    If the driving of the vehicle, whose driving delegation system is activated, violates rules the breach of which constitutes a contravention, the holder of the authorisation shall be financially liable for the payment of fines.

    If the driving caused an accident resulting in personal injury, the holder of the authorisation shall be criminally liable for the offences of involuntary offence to the life or physical integrity of the person, if a fault is established, within the meaning of Article 121-3 of the French Criminal Code, in the implementation of the driving delegation system.

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