Infringement of the artist's moral rights

Infringement can be constituted by an infringement of economic rights (exploitation in the absence of a transfer of rights, use outside the conditions - of duration, use... - agreed in the transfer of rights).

It can just as easily be constituted in the context of an infringement of the author's moral rights.

A decision by the Paris Court of Appeal perfectly illustrates this situation.

The illustrious author of the illustrations in the "Signe de Pistes" children's collection having died, his successors formed an association, which became the illustrator's sole successor in title.

It is this association that has brought a lawsuit seeking recognition of a double infringement of the author's moral rights:

- on the one hand, due to the use of the illustrator's images in a politicized media, even though the author had always, during his lifetime, refused to allow his work to be associated with ideas that were not his own, and in particular the ideas disseminated by the said media.

- secondly, because of the marketing of plastic watches of questionable quality.

The court upheld the rights holders' claims, finding infringement of the author's moral rights:

- firstly, because the images were integrated into a montage violating the right to integrity of the work, and the dissemination of his images in a politicized context with which the author had expressly wished not to be associated violated the right to respect for the work;

- secondly, because the very low quality of the plastic watches marketed featuring the author's illustrations was such as to infringe the right to the quality of his works.