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A recent decision by the Paris Tribunal has condemned 3 different French websites for linking to another website containing gossip information on the French actor Olivier Martinez.
The actor has decided to sue 3 websites (Fuzz.fr, Vivre-en-normandie.com and CroixRousse.net) for linking to external websites that presented the respective information.
Fuzz.fr is a Digg-like
website, where the website users can vote which news comes on first.
However, the court decided that the owner of the website has an
editorial responsibility, even if it's a digg-like service, and forced
him to pay 1000 euros as damages for infringing the actor's privacy and
1500 euros as legal fees.
CroixRousse.net just posted the title
and a link to a Yahoo-based news on the same topic, but the judge
decided they needed to pay 500 euros as well, for the same
infringement. Also a local blogger who writes at Vivre-en-normandie.com
was sentenced to pay the same amount for putting a link to a similar
news item.
Eric Dupin, owner of Fuzz.fr and a famous French
blogger has contested the decision, emphasizing the fact that the court
doesn't understand the websites from web 2.0
. Dupin does not try to deny any responsibility of the sites in
relation to the information, but questions the procedure used in this
case: "The problem here is the method: we have never been asked to
withdraw the respective link, which I would have done. We have been
sent directly to justice".
Laurent Galichet, the young owner of
the local news website CroixRousse.net that won 3.8 euros from his
website in 2008, expressed his stupefaction: "That means you can be
attacked for hosting a link on your website... It's like attacking the
newspapers stands, because one the newspapers they show has a court
battle."
It seems that there are also other 17 websites that are
attacked by the French artists' lawyers for similar considerations,
even though the news has been replicated by more online sources, some
of them out of France.
A wave of condemnations shakes the French Web 2.0 (only in French, 27.03.2008)
Case Olivier Martinez vs. Fuzz : Fuzz condemned (only in French, 27.03.2008)
Parts of the Court decision (only in French, 28.03.2008)
The French web passes through black hours...(only in French, 28.03.2008)
Source: ЕДРи-грам „France: Linking can be damaging to your pockets" April 11, 2008.
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