Playboy to Sue French Women's Magazine
Mar 22, 12:40 PM EST

All publicity is good publicity, or so the maxim goes — but Playboy, venerable pioneer of the mass-market nude centerfold, begs to differ.

Playboy Enterprises Inc. is due in court Tuesday to press criminal charges against the owner of Voici, a French women's weekly that printed miniatures of Playboy pages featuring the actresses Daryl Hannah and Shannen Doherty.

Voici publisher Prisma Presse and its chief executive, Axel Ganz, have been summoned to the preliminary hearing to face accusations of "counterfeiting by publication or reproduction," a court official said.

Prisma's legal director, Martine Berard Mirepoix, said Playboy had also filed for ?400,000 ($490,000) in damages after Voici used the images in its press review.

In its Oct. 6 issue, Voici ran page reproductions measuring three-by-two inches from a Playboy photo shoot with Hannah, 43, whose film credits range from 1980s sci-fi classic "Blade Runner" to "Kill Bill," the latest blood-drenched film from Quentin Tarantino.

Entitled "Hannah from Heaven," the Playboy series shows the smiling actress in a variety of poses, sporting a pair of pink roller boots and very little else.

The following month, when Playboy's American edition published photos of Shannen Doherty — best known for U.S. TV roles in "Charmed" and "Beverly Hills, 90210" — Voici once again carried scaled-down highlights.

Anna Cashman, in-house lawyer for Chicago-based Playboy Enterprises Inc., said the company had nothing to say publicly about its legal action. Agents for Hannah and Doherty did not return calls.

But staff at German-owned Prisma — whose 19 titles include the French edition of National Geographic — said they were baffled by Playboy's reaction to what they see as free publicity for the half century-old adult magazine.

"They felt we'd damaged their business and that because we'd shown their photos, people wouldn't buy their magazine afterward," Voici editor Hedi Dahmani told The Associated Press by telephone.

"But if I were a young man and I noticed in the press review that Daryl Hannah was appearing naked in Playboy this month, I'd want to go buy it."

Hannah's and Doherty's photo shoots featured in Voici before they had appeared in Playboy's French magazine, which often publishes pictures weeks after the U.S. edition.

French law takes a tough stance on intellectual property, and breaking copyright can be a criminal offense, allowing rights holders to choose between the civil and penal system to seek redress.

Besides potentially hefty damages for Prisma, CEO Ganz risks a criminal record if convicted on the charges brought by Playboy, and even up to two years behind bars — although lawyers say prison sentences are extremely rare in this kind of case.



http://entertainment.msn.com/celebs/article.aspx?news=153205

The RIAA would love it if file sharers were forced to spend two years behind bars. It's saddening that something as minor as this is treated with such severity when violent criminals are back on the streets in no time.

"But if I were a young man and I noticed in the press review that Daryl Hannah was appearing naked in Playboy this month, I'd want to go buy it."

Good try... it was a womens' magazine.

Wow...

Hmm, Voici's rag IS published for proffit (if I am not mistaken.) They might very well deserve to be brought up on these charges if the creator of the work did not give them permission to run the photos.

Shmoo

"...allowing rights holders to choose between the civil and penal system to seek redress."

Since Playboy is suing, it would appear they are taking the civil penalty route.

Do you want freedom fries with that?

Playboy is seeking redress?

I thought their forte was to undress.

Sorry, I saw the irony in the text.

ooh la la

Who cares.....Je deteste le playboy....j'aime les mieux passe-temps. Vive la France.

:-:~ Phantom

"The RIAA would love it if file sharers were forced to spend two years behind bars."

The RIAA would also love it when those very same file sharers group together to get revenge out of the two years that were stolen from them. Seriously, if they started getting to the point where people are actually going to jail over such civil matters, then the people have all the reason to make this fight physical, AND personal.

I don't belive playboy would go after the jail sentencing if they want to have more publicity work against their favor.