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Introduction: France

 Personality rights are strongly protected in France through the protection of private life in Article 9 of the French Civil Code.  This measure has been used to prevent unauthorised reproduction of images by ordinary and famous individuals alike. It would thus appear that personality rights in France are based on dignitary rather than commercial concerns although the exercise of the rights can have commercial implications.   

On the side of privacy are cases such as Philippe, where photographers and reporters had entered a hospital room to take photographs of an ill child. Individuals are not just protected within enclosed spaces, but also against the intrusive nature of long-lens photography such as that employed in the Bardot and Schneider cases.   

Commercial aspects of personality are also protected. The French doctrine “finalité” places restrictions on what the press are able to publish in respect of images of individuals. The courts look to what has been authorised by an individual and limits the extent of publication to such authorisation.  Catherine Deneuve could thus prevent magazine from printing photographs of her that it had bought from another, where that other magazine had produced and published them with her consent. Recent cases also construe this “goal of publication” element narrowly. The Cour de Cassation prevented a magazine from publishing photographs of items of merchandise that portrayed the image of Johnny Halliday and which Johnny Halliday had authorised for sale. The scope of a publicity campaign has also to be known to an individual and that individual must consent to the extent to which an image will be used in such a campaign B / SA C.

France Case list:

* Use of long-lens photography:

Bardot, 1965
Schneider, 1979

* Protection of children:

Philippe, 1965
Astier, 2000

* Scope and nature of consent:

Bardot, 1965
B / SA C, 1998
Halliday, 2000

* Limits to the scope of publicity right:

Michel Leeb, 1990

* Drawings and caricature:

Jacqueline H, 1980
Civ 1, 13.01,1998

* The “finalité” doctrine:

Halliday, 2000

* Private life, public stage:

The red jumper case, 1980
Farah Diba, 1988

* Personal data:

MM. X v Société Expansion, 1990

* Personality rights v Freedom of the press:

Isabelle X v Entrevue, 2003

* Law applicable to personality rights:

Farah Diba, 1988
 

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