1777: Beaumarchais, the founder
At a evening dinner organized by the French playwright Beaumarchais on July 3, 1777, a group of around twenty authors got together to form the first Society of Dramatic Authors. Beaumarchais, in spite of his triumph with The Barber of Seville was receiving very little reward for the toils of his labour. At the time, the all-powerful members of the Comédie Française enjoyed, and abused, a monopolistic situation whereby every author of a play written in verse was obligated to give them first refusal. And, even if accepted, the author received a pittance, in no way reflecting the success of a work such as The Barber of Seville.
This first step taken in 1777 led to the French Assembly officially recognizing the concept of authors' rights ("droit d’auteur") on 13 January 1791, a law later ratified on 19 January 1791 by Louis XVI. This law, the first of its kind in the world, already asserts that "The most sacred, the most unassailable and the most personal of possessions is the fruit of a writer’s thought". In total, twenty-two authors joined forces with Beaumarchais to form the first "Bureau of Dramatic Law", thus paving the way for the creation, many years later, of the SACD (Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques – Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers), which took place on 7 March 1829, grouping the two Bureaus created in 1791 and 1798.
1866: Towards international protection
The 19th century saw the mobilization of well-known authors to protect authors and their rights. In 1841, Lamartine proposed an international law to extend to the entire world the protection which French authors enjoyed. Later, Victor Hugo founded the International Literary and Artistic Association, which was instrumental in the drawing up of the Berne Convention, signed in 1866, to promote international protection of literary and artistic works, and which entitled non-resident authors to enjoy the rights in effect in the country where the author's work is performed. Adding an international facet to authors' rights in such a manner reflects on a century marked by the increased movement of people, and by extension, their works of art, throughout Europe and the world. Major technological changes in the early half of the 20th century saw the ongoing expansion of SACD repertoires with cinematographic works entering in 1913, followed by radiophonic and televised fiction works in 1923 and 1950 respectively.
1926: Intensified international cooperation
Building on the legal framework of the Berne Convention (1866), authors' societies from a number of countries began to pool their resources to apply the principle of reciprocity to the protection of authors' rights. In 1926, the CISAC (Confédération Internationale des Sociétés d'Auteurs et Compositeurs - International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers) was created. CISAC now unites 203 societies in 108 countries. These societies coordinate their efforts, and act as a unified group in their dealings with the authorities. They also provide rigorous administration of foreign repertoires.
1957: New Legislation introduced in France
After the Second World War, the development and democratisation of new public communications and information media (radio, television, etc) as well the sheer increase in recorded content impacted significantly on the general cultural sector economy. The works of performing artists were now easily and widely available outside the usual places of exploitation, and the entire question of protecting authors' rights needed reviewing.
A review was all the more necessary given that, despite increased international coordination, few legislative changes had been made. Since 1791, jurisprudence had built on former legislation, outdated by new ways of broadcasting and disseminating artistic works. The law dated 11 March 1957 regarding literary and artistic property introduced new legislation for authors' rights and consolidated the previous voluminous body of law. This law recognizes the primacy of moral rights and determines, using existing case law as a basis, the substance of authors' rights, conditions of exploitation of authors' economic rights, terms and conditions of performance and publishing contracts, and application procedures.
1985: Law governing remuneration for private copying
The law carried on July 3, 1985, (or Loi Lang - named after its promulgator, the then French Culture Minister, Jack Lang) marked a new phase in the history of authors' rights for audiovisual works by applying the regime for cinematographic works. This law also defined the legal substance of audiovisual production contracts and brought in remuneration for private copying. The law provided for the institution of a Code of authors' rights and neighbouring rights (which was not ratified in its original form). Rendered effective by the law dated 1 July 1992, the Intellectual Property Code covers a much broader field than initially defined in 1985, with special provisions for industrial property (patents, brands, etc). This Intellectual Property Code (law 92-597 dated 1 July 1992 and decree 95-385 dated 10 April 1995) rescinds "in fine" the laws dated 11 March 1957 and 3 July 1985. Under the terms of this new law, 75% of the sums collected by authors' rights management societies are distributed to the authors, according to the number of copies made, with the remaining 25% allocated to "assisting the creation and dissemination of the performing arts and artist training".
1994: An initial response to globalisation
During the 90s, a number of European and International negotiations of major concern to authors took place. As noted above, the 1866 Berne Convention had ratified authors' rights. This was consolidated by the Geneva Universal Convention (6 November 1952), the Treaty of Rome and a number of reciprocity agreements between authors' rights management societies over the world. Things speeded up considerably during the 90's. After seven years of negotiations, the GATT agreements signed on 15 December 1993, excluded the audiovisual sector from trade negotiations, thus maintaining the “cultural exception".
On April 15, 1994, the WTO (World Trade Organization) was set up in order to implement the GATT agreements. Within this framework, authors’ rights remained a topic for discussion, notably as regards the practicalities of their administration internationally. On July 25, 1995, the European Commission adopted the Green Paper on neighbouring rights within the context of the “Information Society”. On December 20, 1996 the Geneva Diplomatic Conference adopted the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Treaty on authors’ rights and neighbouring rights. Lastly, 1997 saw the duration of the legal protection of works extended from 50 to 70 years after the author's decease.
21st century: The Digital Era
As the 20th century drew to a close, private copying became a major issue, driven by vastly enhanced user capacities to transfer digital works to audio and visual media. Since January 4, 2001, remuneration for private copying has been extended to removable digital media (CD-Rom, DVD, etc) and now includes all authors. With digital piracy on ongoing concern for all, new legislation came into force on July 4, 2002 regarding remuneration for private copying applicable to digital media in certain electronic devices: Hi-Fi units, walkman players with hard drive, decoders and video recorders with hard drive.
2004: Defending cultural diversity
On January 23, 2004, a number of professional organizations from cultural milieus, including the SACD, changed the name of the Cultural Watchdog Committee (which they had created in 1997) to the "French Coalition for Cultural Diversity", aligning the French branch with 10 other similar bodies worldwide (Argentina, Australia, Burkina Faso, Canada, Chile, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Senegal, South Korea), all operating under the umbrella of the International Liaison Committee Of Coalitions for Cultural Diversity. In a difficult global context, the French Coalition fights to define freedom of expression and creation within a social and economic environment favourable to the emergence of new talent and the freedom for individual countries to develop or adapt their cultural policies as required. The Coalition also strives to keep culture outside international trade and market liberalization decisions taken by the World Trade Organization (WTO).
