Hollywood Docket: Carla Bruni Sues Newspaper Over 68-Year-Old Song

Singer and French First Lady Carla Bruni is suing a French newspaper for posting a 50-second audio clip of one of her performances.

Bruni sang an Italian version of "Douce France," a 68-year-old song by crooner Charles Trenet. Part of the performance was then posted by Midi Libre, interpreting the choice as a vocal way of supporting her husband, President Nicolas Sarkozy, and commemorating the death of Trenet. In the United States, this would certainly classify as "fair use" to copyright laws, but France is know to be less permissive of copyright breaches. Bruni is suing for "counterfeiting."

In other entertainment law news...

• A California judge has ordered Steve Jobs to answer questions in a class action antitrust lawsuit that examines whether Apple created a music-downloading monopoly with its iPod player and iTunes store.

• UK singer Lily Allen has won a monetary judgement against a tabloid that posted pictures of her home. The court found the Daily Mail story headlined "Pregnant Lily spends £3m on stunning Cotswold home" violated her privacy and copyright.

• Upstart online film rental service Zediva, which is offering new movies before Netflix and Redbox, has become a hot company since its launch. But is its quirky business model allowing users to rent a physical disk and DVD player from afar, legal or out-of-bounds?