French court finds appropriation of photograph not sufficiently 'transformative' and therefore infringing
One of Malka's Flair photographs A few days ago this blog reported on an interesting decision of the Swedish Supreme Court that held that unauthorized 'appropriation' of a substantial part of a photograph for use in a painting did not amount to copyright infringement, as the meaning of the defendant's work was different from the original work. A few days ago, also a French court (Versailles Court of Appeal) had the opportunity to decide a case ( Malka v Klasen , RG No 15/06029, 16 March 2018 ) with a similar factual background. Unlike the Swedish Supreme Court, the Versailles Court of Appeal held that the defendant had infringed the claimant's copyright. It found that the defendant could neither invoke the parody defence under French copyright law nor freedom of (artistic) expression under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) . Let's see what happened. Background Photographer Alix Malka ...