Who are we ?

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“Panser le droit d'auteur” is a french non-commercial website, accessible free of charge to all Internet users. Untranslatable in English, it is a pun between the French verbs "Panser" ("To Heal") and "Penser" ("To Think").

 

The purpose of “Panser le droit d'auteur” is to draw attention to the abusive practices of which authors are victims, and to promote the evolution of the recognition of authors' rights, today centered on “droit d’auteur”, towards a better knowledge of all the rights of authors (civil law, tax law, social law etc.).

 

This site is dedicated to be a place of exchange, intended for the publication of contributions by legal professionals and authors, wishing to highlight the problems they encounter, maintained by the insufficiencies of the applicable law, in particular the uses, as well as by the ecosystem of creation (public policies, role of the various directions of the ministry of the culture, collective management organizations, unions of producers or publishers, authors’ organizations, etc.)

 

The objective of this site is to allow any professional of culture sector and law, as well as any public decision-maker or MP, to apprehend the reality of the difficulties encountered by authors, and the frequent inadequacy between the various branches of law applicable to them.

 

It is based on an observation shared by many authors, as well as by legal professionals, who sometimes note a gap between the theoretical approach of “droit d’auteur”, which is supposed to be favourable to authors, and its practical approach, which circumvents this initial vocation.

 

Thus, any author who, in practice, refuses to transfer his or her rights to an operator (producer, publisher, etc.) for the entire world, for the duration of the legal protection of copyright (i.e. for his or her entire life, plus 70 years from the death of the last of the co-authors of his or her work), and for any known or unknown mode of exploitation, is exposed to having to give up his or her profession. This is a prerequisite for the operators to negotiate, even before any discussion can begin around a remuneration proposal, which is often a take-it-or-leave-it proposition.

 

Some authors, especially those in the audiovisual sector, are presumed to have transferred their economic rights. Writers see their moral rights paralyzed until the completion of the audiovisual or cinematographic work, so that they feel almost systematically dispossessed of a vision they wanted to communicate through their work.

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The statements of account, which are nevertheless legal obligations provided for since 1957 in the "great" law on literary and artistic property, are most often not sent to the authors, and when they are, they are often incomplete or opaque, and do not allow for the sharing of the value.

 

Assignment contracts are full of abusive clauses and often reserve the right for the operator to unilaterally decide to respect certain contractual commitments to which it has nevertheless committed. The authors are thus commissioned to create works, but with payment most often subordinated to the discretionary acceptance of their client.

 

These few examples must call into question the idea that one has of French “droit d’auteur”. This right "à la française" is often presented as an extremely powerful and protective model of the interests of authors. And we find this form of idealization in the universities, in the representation that MPs, public decision-makers, and more generally the public have of it.

 

Any person wishing to contribute to the current site by a publication in line with the vocation and convictions of “Panser le droit d'auteur” is invited to send it to the address contact@panserledroitdauteur.org. In case of validation, the publication will be put online with the name, first name and profession of the contributor, and the contributor will be offered to summarize his or her career in the "Contributors" section of the site. In any case, the contributor remains the owner of his copyright on his contribution and may at any time request that it be removed from the site.

 

Today a simple blog, “Panser le droit d'auteur” could in the future become an association or a company with a social purpose, because of the importance of the act of creation in the socialization of society (i.e. in its capacity to create links and social unity through a shared culture), and the need to provide it with special protection.

 

This evolution will depend on the energies that will manifest themselves if necessary to develop the vocation of “Panser le droit d'auteur”. Among the reflections to be carried out, Panser le droit d'auteur could thus develop new objectives such as :

 

• The organization and conduct of training workshops for authors, as well as for any professional in the culture sector wishing to better understand the various issues encountered by authors, and to respond to them with a concern for fairness and respect for legality.

 

• The organization and conduct of seminars, presentations, conferences.

 

• The creation of a case law database specifically dedicated to decisions impacting the situation of authors (copyright, social law, civil law, etc.).

 

• The provision of all intellectual services in the field of the creation, development and management of professional organizations of authors and performers, and in particular the provision of training for their members and their management , as well as legislative, regulatory and community lobbying advice.

 

• The production and/or distribution of sound and/or audiovisual recordings, as well as written publications, relating to the problems encountered by authors and the actions to be taken to respond to them.

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