Chapter V: Criminal provisions

The competent judicial police officers may proceed, as soon as the offences provided for in Articles L. 335-4 à L. 335-4-2, the seizure of illegally reproduced phonograms and videograms, illegally manufactured or imported copies and objects, any copy, product, apparatus, device, component or means infringing technological measures and the information mentioned respectively in articles L. 331-5 and L. 331-11 as well as the seizure of equipment specially installed with a…

Any edition of writings, musical composition, drawing, painting or any other production, printed or engraved in whole or in part, in defiance of the laws and regulations relating to authors’ property, is an infringement and any infringement is an offence. Counterfeiting in France of works published in France or abroad is punishable by three years’ imprisonment and a fine of 300,000 euros. The debit, export, import, transhipment or possession for…

It is punishable by three years’ imprisonment and a fine of 300,000 euros to: 1° Publish, make available to the public or communicate to the public, knowingly and in any form whatsoever, software manifestly intended for the unauthorised making available to the public of protected works or objects; 2° Knowingly encourage, including through an advertisement, the use of software mentioned in 1°.

It is also an infringement offence to reproduce, represent or distribute, by any means whatsoever, a work of the mind in violation of the author’s rights, as defined and regulated by law. It is also an infringement offence to violate any of the rights of the author of software as defined in Article L. 122-6. It is also an infringement offence to capture all or part of a cinematographic or…

I.-A fine of €3,750 shall be imposed for knowingly undermining, for purposes other than research, an effective technological measure as defined in article L. 331-5, in order to alter the protection of a work by decoding, decrypting or any other personal intervention intended to circumvent, neutralise or remove a protection or control mechanism, where this infringement is carried out by means other than the use of a technological application, device…

I.-It is punishable by a fine of €3,750 to knowingly delete or modify, for purposes other than research, any item of information referred to in article L. 331-11, by personal intervention not requiring the use of an existing technological application, device or component, designed or specially adapted for this purpose, with the aim of infringing a copyright, concealing or facilitating such infringement. II.-It is punishable by six months’ imprisonment and…

Any fixation, reproduction, communication or making available to the public, whether in return for payment or free of charge, or any television broadcast of a performance, a phonogram, a videogram, a programme or a press publication, made without the authorisation, where required, of the performer, the phonogram or videogram producer, the audiovisual communication company, the press publisher or the press agency. The same penalties shall apply to the import, export,…

I.-It is punishable by a fine of €3,750 to knowingly undermine, for purposes other than research, an effective technological measure as defined in article L. 331-5, in order to alter the protection of a performance, phonogram, videogram, programme or press publication by decoding, decrypting or any other personal intervention intended to circumvent, neutralise or remove a protection or control mechanism, when this infringement is carried out by means other than…

I.-It is punishable by a fine of €3,750 to knowingly delete or modify, for purposes other than research, any item of information referred to in article L. 331-11, through personal intervention that does not require the use of a technological application, device or existing component, designed or specially adapted for this purpose, with the aim of infringing a right related to copyright, or of concealing or facilitating such infringement. II.It…

In the event of a conviction based on one of the offences defined in articles L. 335-2 to L. 335-4-2, the court may order the total or partial, permanent or temporary closure, for a maximum period of five years, of the establishment used to commit the offence. Temporary closure may not result in the termination or suspension of the employment contract, or in any financial prejudice to the employees concerned….