In a significant legal decision on September 2, last year, the Court of Cassation finalized a copyright dispute involving Pierre Perret, a well-known author and composer, and the publishing company Le Cherche-Midi. The case centered on Perret's claim that Le Cherche-Midi had violated his rights regarding his book Ma vie en vin, which was published in 2016. Perret’s company, Editions Adèle, had previously collaborated with Le Cherche-Midi on seven books between 2006 and 2015, each with specific contractual terms regarding the duration of rights transfer and the author's royalties. However, for Ma vie en vin, no written contract was signed. Perret initially sued Le Cherche-Midi in December 2019, arguing that the lack of a written agreement meant the publisher had no legal basis to exploit the book. Despite this, Le Cherche-Midi had sent SMS messages and registered letters in 2016 and 2017 to communicate their terms. In July 2017, Editions Adèle sent a contract proposal, including a one-year transfer period, a 20% royalty rate, and an advance payment of 150,000 €, but Le Cherche-Midi rejected some of these terms. The book was eventually published, and its commercialization ended in September 2017, with a payment of 127,014.02 € made in December 2017. The Paris judicial court ruled that while written contracts are required for publishing under the intellectual property code, the absence of a written agreement does not necessarily negate a contract if the author implicitly accepts it. The court determined that Perret had implicitly accepted the terms by participating in the book’s promotion starting in September 2016. This decision was upheld by the Paris Court of Appeal on March 12, 2025, which rejected Editions Adèle's claims for compensation and established the total remuneration due to Perret for the sale of 24,294 copies of Ma vie en vin at 115,153.56 €, excluding taxes. The Court of Cassation confirmed that in the absence of a written contract, the publisher can still rely on the author's implicit acceptance, provided it clearly defines the scope, duration, and place of the rights transferred. Perret’s approval of the cover proof and participation in the book’s promotion were deemed sufficient to establish this acceptance. The dispute over Ma vie en vin is part of a broader conflict between Editions Adèle and Le Cherche-Midi. Earlier, Editions Adèle had requested accounting justifications for the exploitation of other titles, leading to payments by the publisher in 2017. However, these did not satisfy Editions Adèle, prompting another lawsuit in December 2019 over alleged special sales, rights transfers, and digital exploitation of other books. The Paris judicial court initially dismissed most of Editions Adèle's claims but ordered Le Cherche-Midi to pay 209.06 € for additional remuneration related to digital exploitation. On appeal, the Paris Court of Appeal ruled that digital exploitation did constitute copyright infringement for certain titles, as the contracts had not specified the transfer of rights for digital formats. Le Cherche-Midi was ordered to pay 698.30 € for these digital uses, plus an additional 3,400 € in damages and interest.