Out-Law / Your Daily Need-To-Know

An employee of Lucent Technologies who created an offensive parody web site in his own time has landed his company in trouble: a French court has ruled that Lucent is responsible because Nicolas Breil developed the site in the office.

The web site, which has since been removed, poked fun at Escota, a roads authority for South East France. Breil, dissatisfied with the road tolls, gave the site a version of the Escota logo which carried a "sexual overtone" and filled the site with criticism of the company, even suggesting that the management should be murdered.

Escota sued Breil's employer, Lucent, because Breil had created the site on company time, and Lycos, owner of the service where the site was hosted. It argued that Lucent was responsible for the "brand forgery" because it had a responsibility to control its employees under the French civil code. It also demanded that the court decision be printed in two national daily newspapers at Lucent's expense.

The judge ruled that the web site be suspended and cleared Lycos of any wrongdoing, saying that it had done all it could to identify the guilty party. However, it accepted that Lucent had a clear duty under the French civil code, which it had neglected by not imposing sufficient restrictions on employees, and that the company had to carry responsibility for Breil's actions.

The court ordered Lucent to spend up to €4 000 advertising the judgment.

The judgment (in French) is at:
www.juriscom.net/documents/
tgimarseille20030611.pdf

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