Copyright

All of the works presented on this site are strictly protected by all international laws governing the protection of intellectual property, without any time limit, neither in its distribution, whatever the medium is, nor in the inherent exploitation of the "image" a posteriori, whatever it may be, which falls de facto under the intellectual property of the artist and creative Diego Piccini (da Todi).

· All of these works, before publication, were the subject of an Inpi France / Inpi ESoleau deposit. All artworks are marked (metadata, watermarks, trackers and other methods) and copyrighted. The photos presented on this site are in low resolution, in order to limit piracy.

Reminder of French law (applicable to international treaties relating to the protection of intellectual property)

See the official document (FR)

Protection by copyright

French copyright is the right of creators. The principle of copyright protection is established by article L. 111-1 of the Intellectual Property Code (CPI) which provides that “the author of an intellectual work enjoys over this work, by the sole fact of its creation, an exclusive intangible property right enforceable against all.

This right includes intellectual and moral attributes as well as patrimonial attributes.”

All of these rights appear in the first part of the intellectual property code which notably codifies the laws of March 11, 1957, July 3, 1985, August 1, 2006, June 12, 2009 and October 28, 2009. In its decision no. 2006-540 DC of July 27 2006, the Constitutional Council considered that intellectual property rights, and in particular copyright and related rights, fall under property law which is one of the human rights enshrined in Article 2 of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen of 1789.

THE MAIN CHARACTERISTICS OF PROTECTION :

1 - Copyright confers on its holder private property allowing him to determine the conditions of exploitation of his work

The rights granted to authors are broken down into two series of prerogatives with distinct legal regimes.

Property rights (CPI, art. L. 122-1 s.) which allow the author to authorize different modes of use of his work and to receive remuneration in return. Moral rights (CPI, art. L. 121-1 s.) whose purpose is to protect the personality of the author expressed through his work.

This property is intangible in nature. Thus, it is appropriate to dissociate the fate of copyright relating to an intellectual work from that of the material medium in which the work is incorporated. As such, the sale of the material support of the work (for example, a painting) does not entail the transfer of the copyright relating to this work (CPI, art. L. 131-3).

2 - The acquisition of copyright protection does not require any formality

The granting of legal protection is conferred on the author by the sole fact of the creation of an original form.

Copyright therefore protects intellectual works without the author having to complete any administrative formality of deposit or prior registration. The rules relating to legal deposit therefore have no influence on the creation of copyright.

Nevertheless, the existence of a deposit or registration, particularly in the context of litigation, may be likely to facilitate proof of authorship and the date of creation of the work. To this end, the author can date the creation of his work with certainty and identify himself as the author:

– with a bailiff or notary;

– with one of the 19 centers of the National Institute of Intellectual Property (INPI) present in Paris and the region, via the use of a Soleau envelope.

- double envelope, one of the parts of which is returned to the applicant, after recording and perforation - in which the author enters the elements he wishes to date;

– with one of the rights collection and distribution companies, chosen because of its corporate purpose.

The author can also send the work to himself or to a third party in a closed envelope with acknowledgment of receipt without opening the envelope upon receipt, the postmark being taken as proof.

3 - Copyright infringements are punishable under criminal law (ICC, art. L. 335-1 to L. 335-10)

In the event of infringement of his rights, the copyright holder has an action for infringement which he can bring either before the civil or administrative courts to obtain compensation, or before the repressive courts to obtain criminal sanctions.

Violation of copyright constitutes the offense of counterfeiting punishable by a fine of 300,000 euros and 3 years of imprisonment (ICC, art. L. 335-2 s.).

Penalties additional

- closure of establishment, confiscation, publication by posting of the judicial decision

- may also be pronounced. The intellectual property code understands counterfeiting as all acts of unauthorized use of the work.

In the event of partial resumption of the latter, it is assessed according to the similarities between the works.

The simple attempt is not punishable. The law criminalizes under the offense of counterfeiting:

- “any reproduction, representation or dissemination, by any means whatsoever, of an intellectual work in violation of the rights of the author, as defined and regulated by law” (CPI, art. L. 335-3).

- “the debit [act of dissemination, in particular by sale, of goods counterfeiting], export and import of “infringing” works” (CPI, art. L. 335.2 al. 3).

The law establishes a preventive procedure, seizure-counterfeiting, which allows the holder to quickly stop any infringement of their rights by seizing counterfeit copies and to provide proof of the counterfeiting (CPI, art. L. 332-1 to L. 332-4).

Judicial police officers and sworn agents designated by the national center for cinema and animated images, by professional defense organizations and by rights collection and distribution companies and approved by the minister in charge of culture are authorized to establish the materiality of offenses.

4 - The duration of protection

Contrary to moral rights which are perpetual, the exploitation rights conferred on authors are limited in time.

According to article L. 123-1 of the CPI, “ The author enjoys, throughout his life, the exclusive right to exploit his work in any form whatsoever and to derive a financial profit from it. On the death of the author, this right persists for the benefit of his beneficiaries during the current calendar year and the seventy years which follow.

At the end of this period the work falls into the public domain, so that its use is free subject to respecting the moral rights of the author. Thus, for an author who died on June 1, 2010 (the deadline runs from January 1, 2011), the work will only enter the public domain on January 1, 2081.

However, with regard to:

• Collaborative works

The calendar year taken into account is that of the death of the last living member of the collaborators (CPI, art. L. 123-2). For audiovisual works the list of co-authors is restrictive, this is the author of the screenplay, the author of the spoken text, the author of the musical compositions with or without lyrics specially created for the work and the main director. is for seventy years from January 1 of the calendar year following that in which the work was published. The date of publication is determined by any method of proof, in particular by legal deposit (CPI, art. L. 123-3).

• Posthumous works disclosed after the expiration of the common law period (seventy years)

The duration is twenty-five years from January 1 of the calendar year following that of publication (CPI, art. L. 123-4). The legislator also wished to compensate for the loss of income suffered by authors or their beneficiaries during the armed conflicts of 1914-1918 and 1939-1945 by increasing the duration of protection by a time equal to the duration of these conflicts (ICC, art. L. 123-8 and L. 123-9).

Interpreting the provisions of articles L. 123-8 and L. 123-9 of the IPC in the light of the European directive of October 29, 1993 relating to the harmonization of the term of protection of copyright and certain related rights, the Court of Cassation nevertheless ruled that the period of 70 years retained for the harmonization of the term of protection of copyright within the European Community covered extensions due to war, except in cases where on 1 July 1995, the date of entry into force of the directive, a longer period of protection had started to run, which is then the only one applicable (Cass. 1ère civ., February 27, 2007, n° 04-12.138 and n° 05-21.962)

Finally, the duration of the rights is extended for a period of thirty years when the author, composer or artist has died for France, as results from the death certificate (CPI, art. L. 123-10). and fall under another legal regime.

5 - Copyright protection must not be confused with other systems of protection which have another object and fall under another legal regime

Industrial property rights which include the law of patents, trademarks, designations of origin and designs which obey the regimes defined in the second part of the intellectual property code.

The law of unfair competition/parasitism and personality rights such as the right to respect for private life, honor, reputation, image which fall under the rules of civil law. These different modes of protection can be exercised cumulatively with the protection of copyright.