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Court of Cassation on photography, (1862)

Source:
Bibliothèque universitaire de Poitiers (SCD): Dalloz, Jurisprudence générale. Recueil Périodique et critique de jurisprudence, de legislation et de doctrine, 1863.1.52

Citation:
Court of Cassation on photography (1863), Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900), eds L. Bently & M. Kretschmer, www.copyrighthistory.org

Record Images


Record-ID:
f_1862

Full title
Betbéder and Schwalbé C. Mayer and Pierson, Court of Cassation. 21 November 1862.

Full title original language
Betbéder et Schwalbé C. Mayer et Pierson, Court de Cassation. Du 21 nov. 1861.

Abstract
The law of 1793 had, obviously, not foreseen the question of photographic productions. Nevertheless, even at a time when photography was beginning to truly assert itself as a lucrative means of reproduction, the revolutionary legislation's very broad provisions, which envisaged all kinds of works, could potentially serve to secure protection for photographs. As it turned out, the question as to whether the products of photography constituted artistic works in the sense of the 1793 act would be fiercely debated right up to the end of the nineteenth century. Giving rise to contradictory decisions before the lower courts from the early 1860s onwards, this question presented itself for the first time to the judges of the Court of Cassation in November 1862. The supreme judges had to give their opinion in this matter, and a priori they had two basic options to choose from: either to exclude photography insofar as it was a simple machine product, whose very form excluded any possibility of identifying an author; or to accept that photography should be protected, since in its form it testified to a personal contribution on the photographer's part and even to his personality. Faced with these two quite opposite standpoints, the judges ultimately opted for another system - one that was complicated, ambiguous, and, so to speak, intermediate between these two principles.

Bibliography
N/A

Related documents in this database

Author
N/A

Publisher
Dalloz

Location
N/A

Year
1863

Language
French

Source
Bibliothèque universitaire de Poitiers (SCD): Dalloz, Jurisprudence générale. Recueil Périodique et critique de jurisprudence, de legislation et de doctrine, 1863.1.52

Physical description
N/A

Illustrations tables
N/A

Persons referred to
Betbéder (fl.1862)
Bisson, Auguste-Rosalie (1826-1900)
Bisson, Louis-Auguste (1814-1876)
Caussin de Perceval, E. (b.1802)
Cavour, Count Camillo Benso di (1810-1861)
Daguerre, Louis Jacques Mandé (1789-1851)
Flandrin, Jean Hippolyte (1809-1864)
Guyho, Corentin (fl.1862-1869)
Henriquel-Dupont, Louis-Pierre (1797-1892)
Hérold, Ferdinand (1828-1882)
Ingres, Jean Auguste Dominique (1780-1867)
Mayer, Léopold Ernst (fl.1862)
Mayer, Louis Frédéric (fl.1862)
Palmerston, Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount (1784-1865)
Pierson, Pierre Louis (1822-1913)
Rendu, Ambroise (1820-1864)
Robert-Fleury, Joseph-Nicolas (1797-1890)
Schwalbé (fl.1862)
Thiébault, Eugène (b.1825)
Vaisse, Marc-Antoine-Henri-Marius (1805-1874)

Persons referred to in commentary
Betbéder (fl.1862)
Cavour, Count Camillo Benso di (1810-1861)
Condorcet, Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas de Caritat, Marquis de (1743-1794)
Couhin, Claude Raoul (b.1850)
Duchenne, Guillaume Benjamin Amand (1806-1875)
Hérold, Ferdinand (1828-1882)
Leclerc, Charles-Guillaume (fl.1778)
Linguet, Simon Nicolas Henri (1736-1794)
Mayer, Léopold Ernst (fl.1862)
Mayer, Louis Frédéric (fl.1862)
Nadar (1820-1910)
Pierson, Pierre Louis (1822-1913)
Pouillet, Eugène (1835-1905)
Rendu, Ambroise (1820-1864)
Renouard, Augustin-Charles (1794-1878)
Schwalbé (fl.1862)
Thiébault, Eugène (b.1825)
Thomas, M. (fl.1862)

Places referred to
Aix
Italy
Paris

Places referred to in commentary
N/A

Legislation referred to
French Copyright Act 1793

Legislation referred to in commentary
French Copyright Act 1793
Code Pénal 1810

Cases referred to
Mayer et Pierson v. Betbéder and Schwalbé (1862)

Cases referred to in commentary
Mayer et Pierson v. Betbéder and Schwalbé (1862)
Bleistein v. Donaldson Lithographing Co., 188 U.S. 239 (1903)

Institutions referred to
Court of Cassation (Paris)
Imperial Court of Paris
Institut de France
Tribunal correctionnel de la Seine

Institutions referred to in commentary
Court of Cassation (Paris)
Imperial Court of Paris
Tribunal correctionnel de la Seine

Key words
adaptation
art market
authorship, theory of
commissions
creativity
industrial revolution
originality
patents, for invention
personality theory
photography, protected subject matter
portrait
public domain

Responsible editor
Frédéric Rideau




Copyright status

Original document is out of copyright. In so far as these scans are protected by copyright, they are made available on the same terms as translations and commentaries (see home page).




Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900), Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge, 10 West Road, Cambridge CB3 9DZ, UK