French Court Outlaws Press Agency for Digitising Photographs without Explicit Consent

The First Civil Chamber of the Supreme Court in Paris ruled in favour of a photojournalist whose works were digitised by a press agency, Corbis Sygma, and made available online. The court said that Corbis Sygma violated the copyright of the photojournalist by digitising his work without explicit consent.  Although the photojournalist previously worked for Corbis Sygma, such use was not expressly mentioned in the contract. According to the French Intellectual Property Code, Article L131 - 3, it requires that each assigned right (eg, the right of reproduction, the right of representation, the right of communication to the public, etc.) and each type of use be mentioned specifically in the assignment agreement.

Read the judgement HERE