Rights Groups Urge France to Pass Darcos Bill

According to Music Business Worldwide, a coalition of more than 220 rights organisations issued a statement on June 8 urging the French National Assembly to adopt the Darcos bill. The outlet reports the bill, drafted by Senator Laure Darcos, was adopted unanimously by the French Senate in April and transmitted to the National Assembly, where it had not been placed on the chamber's agenda. Music Business Worldwide also reports that France's Council of State reviewed the text in March and found it compatible with the French Constitution and EU law. French collecting society SACEM reaffirmed its support on June 8, per Digital Music News, and earlier reporting noted a related statement from 81 French cultural and media organisations.

Per the reporting, the Darcos bill would insert a rebuttable presumption into the French Intellectual Property Code that AI providers have used copyrighted works to train their systems, effectively requiring providers to demonstrate they did not use specific protected material. The coalition's statement quoted by Music Business Worldwide frames large-scale use of creative works "without authorization or compensation" as its central grievance.

Shifting the burden of proof changes the legal risk posture around dataset curation and provenance. Teams operating or distributing services into France would face a different evidentiary environment than jurisdictions that require rights holders to prove use. Comparable national proposals suggest such shifts increase demand for documented licensing, provenance tracking, and auditable ingestion pipelines.

Watch whether the National Assembly schedules the bill - it has not yet been placed on the chamber's agenda - and whether amendments narrow or broaden the presumption. Practitioners should also monitor litigation and administrative guidance that could define evidentiary standards for proving non-use, and any spillover into other EU member states or commercial licensing practices.