(Bloomberg) -- One of France’s largest film producers and several filmmakers accused far-right firebrand Eric Zemmour of infringing their copyrights in a video where he announced he was running for president, and asked judges to force him to take it down.
Zemmour’s teams never sought permission to use several movie excerpts in “flagrant” violation of their rights, said a lawyer for Gaumont SA and film director Luc Besson. Moreover, Zemmour would have never received approval to do so had the former journalist asked, said the lawyer, Thierry Marembert.
“The additional damage this causes is that they don’t wish to be associated to someone with extremist ideas,” Marembert said at a Paris court hearing Thursday. “It would be good for someone who wants to be France’s president to heed copyrights.”
Zemmour’s lawyers invoked freedom of expression arguments and said the claims were inadmissible to seek the dismissal of the lawsuit. They insisted that the excerpts used are very short and muted to defend their use without having sought permission in the clip.
The video’s November release caused an outcry across French media. Seated at a desk in front of an old-style microphone, a set up that sought to echo General Charles de Gaulle’s June 18, 1940 call for a rebellion against German occupation, Zemmour said he wanted to avoid “the disappearance of our civilization.” He punctuated his announcement with dozens of excerpts from movies, TV shows and news reports.
Read more: French Firebrand Zemmour Announces He’s Running for President
After a surprise rise in the polls when Zemmour declared his candidacy, support for the former journalist has been dwindling in the past few weeks. Recent polls suggest he wouldn’t make it to the runoff, trailing President Emmanuel Macron, nationalist leader Marine Le Pen and right-of-center politician Valerie Pecresse.
A ruling in the case, where filmmaker Francois Ozon is among those suing Zemmour, is expected on March 4.
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