The documents stored by the archive centres are “public information”, within the meaning of the Code of Relations between the Public and the Administration (PARC), only if they are freely communicable to all and if third parties do not hold intellectual property rights on these documents.
In the event of the presence of intellectual property rights held by third parties, the re-user must first obtain the necessary authorisations from the authors or their beneficiaries. Without these authorisations, the person who has obtained a copy of a document on which a third party holds intellectual property rights can only make the uses provided for in article L.122-5 of the Intellectual Property Code.
As soon as the documents are “public information”, they fall under the right of re-use.
The re-user is first required to respect the integrity of the information, by ensuring that the content and scope of the information are not altered by restatements (modification of information, insertion of comments without these being clearly distinguishable from the initial content, cuts altering the meaning of the text or the information).
The re-use of information containing personal data is also subject to compliance with the legal framework for the protection of personal data (GDPR), with the Data Protection Act and, where applicable, with specific legislative or regulatory provisions involving anonymisation, pseudonymisation or the collection of the consent of the persons concerned by this data.
The reuser is required to accompany each redistribution (for example, in an academic work) with a precise indication of the source of the information (origin, place of conservation of the document, archive quotation). For example, this indication may take the following form : National Archives (France), quote X, file Y, date, author (if applicable), and document reference if applicable.
The archival documents photographed by us and transmitted within the framework of our service contract are reproductions free of rights.
However, any individual or legal entity, private or public, wishing to re-use photographic reproductions for commercial purposes (for example, for a publication) must submit a written request to the archive concerned.
In the event of non-compliance with the rules of re-use, through ignorance or violation, the re-user is subject to the penalties provided for in article L. 326-1 of the CRPA and, in the event of non-compliance with the rules relating to the re-use of personal data, in articles 45 et seq. of law no. 78-17 of 6 January 1978 relating to information technology, files and freedoms.