There is fact two different Courts in France.

One is for “Civil Law” with many layers and the other the “Penal/Criminal Law” for serious charges (thief, murder, rape, etc.)

It’s mandatory by Law, in the second case, that no names will be ever release by the medias (in order to get the info, you’ll have to get an appointment face to face with some guy at the Court. Even then, only a reading will be made to U : no copy.)

@ Blog

Yes you are right. In order to get some money from publication (Civil Law) you either have to have a business registered as “Legal Publisher” or in case for a newspaper to mention it all under a special page : “Legal Notices”

I think in this first ever case in France ! the Court and Numerama didn’t see it coming when obliging Majors request to go to any Web site of their choice.

Two infringements at once !

The printing press has predefined spaces and pages for publicity. Those are the spaces that are used not only for publicity, but also when an identity wants (or is forced to) to make a public announcement (open letters, openning of govement contracts, etc).

Those are the same spaces that I think the court was refering to(ignorance over new tech), because I don’t see a French court having ANY power over ANY press identity to force them to use an article space to release anything. The only exception might be if that particular press identity loses a trial and is told by the court to issue a public apology to the winning party or retract of a story (wish in most cases goes in the editorial page).