Resumen de France
The regional court (tribunal de grande instance - TGI) of Paris has delivered an interesting judgment in a case of infringement of film copyright. The case at issue was brought by an American director and producer of a number of horror and science-fiction films. He made the film ‘New York 1997’, which was released in 1981. In it, the hero - in exchange for his freedom - has 24 hours to save the president of the United States, who is being held on Manhattan island, transformed into a prison. In April 2012 he learned of the release of a film entitled ‘Lock-Out’, produced by the company Europacorp and scripted in collaboration with Luc Besson; he felt that this film was very similar to his own, and therefore instigated copyright infringement proceedings against the French production company of ‘Lock-Out’, and its writers. In reaching its decision, the court recalled that although ideas are free to be used and there could be no protection merely for the theme of a film, it was nevertheless possible to consider whether the form of the film was not a characteristic feature, and whether its reproduction was such as to constitute infringement of copyright; this was determined by considering similarities rather than differences.
