[A2k] French Court OKs ''Les Miserables'' Sequels

[Manon Ress]

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[ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
Good news from France:

Victor Hugo (26 February 1802 =96 22 May 1885)
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French Court OKs ''Les Miserables'' Sequels

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: December 19, 2008

PARIS (AP) -- A French appeals court has ruled that two modern-day
sequels to Victor Hugo's classic ''Les Miserables'' do not constitute
a threat to the integrity of the novel or the moral rights of its 19th
century author.

Hugo's heirs had filed a suit in 2001 demanding euro685,000 ($955,000)
in damages from author Francois Ceresa, who wrote the novels using the
characters and style of ''Les Miserables.'' They also sought to ban
the two books -- ''Cosette or The Time of Illusions'' and ''Marius or
The Fugitive.''

The family had since reduced its claim to a symbolic one euro in
damages and dropped the idea of outlawing the books.

The court said Friday that Hugo's novel was in the public domain, and
Ceresa was therefore free to invent a sequel.

end of quote
ps

Good 1878 quote
Victor Hugo
=AB Le livre, comme livre, appartient =E0 l'auteur, mais comme pens=E9e, il
appartient - le mot n'est pas trop vaste - au genre humain. Toutes les
intelligences y ont droit. Si l'un des deux droits, le droit de
l'=E9crivain et le droit de l'esprit humain, devait =EAtre sacrifi=E9, ce
serait, certes, le droit de l'=E9crivain, car l'int=E9r=EAt public est notr=
e
pr=E9occupation unique, et tous, je le d=E9clare, doivent passer avant
nous =BB
Discours d'ouverture du Congr=E8s litt=E9raire international, 17 juin 1878

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