[ Ref. 010625 MMDigest, "U.S. Supreme Court Ruling on Electronic
 [ Copyright Law"

In France, electronic royalties apply in addition to the royalties of
the paper edition.  Therefore a publisher must obtain the author's
agreement and/or pay the author of articles published in his newspaper,
on the one hand, and published at his Internet site on the other hand.

This regimentation was born following a conflict between the press
publishers and their journalists who asked for a supplementary
remuneration for the on-line version of articles signed with their
name.  Therefore the electronic press gets a statue equivalent to the
one of the written press, and so authors see their rights strengthened.
For the diffusion of texts at an associated site, it is sufficient to
ask the author of the article for a written authorization for this new
publication.

A priori [designating that which can be known by reasoning alone and
not through experience], the authors being voluntary free-lance writers,
it is pointless to foresee a contract of remuneration for this second
utilization.

One could also anticipate the transfer of royalties to the newspaper
at the time of the first publication, but the problems of respect for
the royalties and the conviviality associated with an Internet site
constitute an argument further in favor of the first solution.

Lorraine Aressy
Perforons la Musique

 [ Translated from the French text, published by the International
 [ Forum for Mechanical Music Organizations (IFMMO), with the kind
 [ permission of the author and IFMMO.   -- Robbie