Vincent Le Chevalier a écrit :
> Some surprising debate going on in France about this:
>
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/3852586/Victor-Hugos-family-loses-battle-to-ban-sequels.html

> 
> 
> Frankly I'm amazed that people find something there to debate. The 
> sequels do not harm the original work in the slightest way, and the 
> original work is in the public domain anyway.

In France (and Europe, generally), author's rights are divided into two
distinct parts :
  - patrimonial, which ensures author can get money from his work.
    Patrimonial rights are inherited, and heirs keep getting money up
    until 70 years after the author's death.
  - moral rights, which ensures the author has control over what
    is done with his works. Moral rights NEVER expire. Respect is
    due to the works forever; for example, you can't normally publish
    a modified version of "hamlet", where you changed some random words,
    or say you wrote it yourself...

However, I'm not sure WHO is legally entitled to the moral rights
control after the patrimonial ones are extinct. I would think that
the Hugo family is no more qualified than you and I to do so.
I don't see on which legal basis any judge would rule in their favor.

Fabien.

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