[{"source":"The Conversation â Articles (FR)","description":"Following widespread looting sprees and acts of violence occurring on the sidelines of the October 17 student protests, so-called “casseurs” seem to be the centre of attention. But the term, which comes from the French verb casser or “to break”, poses more questions than answers. The sociologist Paolo Stuppia examines the unprecedented situation many cities across France are having to contend with, and the complex combination of collective action whose motivations are unclear and the social media’s extreme agility. The Conversation: How unprecedented are the scenes of looting that we witnessed on the sidelines of the October 17 demonstrations? Paolo Stuppia: What may be unprecedented is the extent of the destruction of private property and the goods that have been stolen. It should be clear, however, that not all the looters can necessarily be sorted into identifiable groups, at least politically. Indeed, as the politician Xavier Crettiez, the sociologist Isabelle Sommier and the historian François Audigier emphasised in 2021 in their joint project Violences politiques en France , the targets of acts of violence that are considered to be politically motivated can be determined both by technical constraints and the militant culture of the people involved. Let us recall Italy in the 1970s when autonomous activists spoke of “self-reduction” (the act of seizing goods or essential services), Maoists in France spoke of proletarian reappropriation. Their raid on Fauchon’s luxury grocery store on place de la madeleine and the redistribution of goods to slums and workers’ hostels that ensued went down in history as their biggest claim to fame. Can we go as far as to say that the October 17 looting sprees were politically motivated ? Even if we do not have all the details concerning the profiles of the people arrested, videos posted on social media and stolen goods being resold online tend to rule out the idea. That said, at least some of the targets were chosen haphazardly. While some are symbols of capitalism, like luxury stores, insurance companies, banks, multinationals , others included a number of more localised stores, small shops selling toys or video games; for example, which are rarely targets for such incidents. If, especially since the alter-globalisation movement , we have seen the emergence of damage to property, primarily targeting symbols of capitalism and multinationals, in particular; this phenomenon goes hand in hand with “off the cuff” incidents by groups without any political affiliation, who join demonstrations to “get in on the act” in such a way that we are unable to determine whether it’s just a way of letting off steam or if it’s driven by a goal of redistributing goods – this weekend we witnessed some scenes of goods being redistributed, such as food being given to the homeless. What do we know about casseurs’ profiles? When did they appear in the demonstrations and when did the term first appear in the media? P.S.: Historically, the first research article on the casseur phenomenon can be traced back to the sociologist Gwenola Ricordeau . In France in the 1990s, as was the case during the student and high school movement of 1998, Ricordeau noticed that young people came to demonstrations to commit acts of vandalism or to mug people without having anything to do with the causes behind protest movements. They were driven by opportunism and also a desire to break up the monotony of everyday life. The fact of disqualifying people by designating them as “criminals on the street” therefore ultimately leads us to riot-like phenomena, with or without the “looting” element, which are part of the continuity of “suburban revolt” or “city riots” which have gradually developed in working-class neighbourhoods since the second half of the 1970s. As we demonstrated alongside the sociologist Valérie Becquet in our book Géopolitique de la jeunesse , it","id":3233179,"url":"https://theconversation.com/frances-casseurs-why-the-term-fails-to-do-justice-to-the-extent-of-looting-and-spiralling-unrest-294805","titre":"Franceâs âcasseursâ: why the term fails to do justice to the extent of looting and spiralling unrest","pubDate":"Thu, 22 Oct 2026 08:03:11 +0200"},{"pubDate":"Fri, 22 May 2026 14:08:22 +0200","titre":"Arcom's notice of May 6, 2026 accompanying the publication of model agreements provided for in article L333-10 of the French Sports Code.","url":"https://www.arcom.fr/en/find-out-more/legal-area/legal-resources/arcoms-notice-may-6-2026-accompanying-publication-model-agreements-provided-article-l333-10-french-sports-code","source":"Arcom Textes juridiques","id":2900811,"description":"The French regulatory authority for audiovisual and digital communication, Having regard to the French intellectual property code , in particular article L. 331-12 ; Having regard to the French Sports Code , in particular article L.333-10 ; After due deliberation, Adopts the following notice: The year 2025 marked a turning point in the fight against sports broadcasting piracy, with increased involvement of various types of intermediaries, under the impetus of sports rights holders, as part of the dynamic injunctions issued under article L. 333-10 of the French Sports Code . In addition to the legal actions involving Internet Service Providers (ISPs), which have been fully integrated into the scheme since 2022, and in order to strengthen the effectiveness of the blocking measures implemented, rights holders have extended their legal actions, from 2023, to search engine operators, who play a key role as central players in the diffusion of information on the internet and in directing users to sports-related contdnt. Search engine operators are now almost systematically involved in actions taken by rights holders to protect sports competitions. Between 2024 and 2025, the number of delisting measures ordered by the courts and the number of measures notified by Arcom in application of the orders issued has dubbed. In response to the misuse by some Internet users of domain name resolution services or virtual private networks (VPNs), rights holders then extended the scope of players taken to court to prevent access to services dedicated to the unlawful broadcasting of sports competitions. More than 5,000 blocking demands were notified to alternative DNS in 2025. As for virtual private network service providers, they were the subject of the first court verdicts, handed down on the basis of article L. 333-10 of the French Sports Code , in May 2025, and as such are receiving a growing number of blocking demands to update the measures ordered by the judge. Against this backdrop, strengthening cooperation between rights holders of sports-related content and the various intermediaries mentioned in the court orders would therefore appear to be desirable in order to give an even greater impact to the fight agains sports piracy. The parties are also invited to continue their exchanges with Arcom with a view to optimizing the provision of identification data and ensuring the simultaneous application of delisting and blocking measures by all technical intermediaries involved in preventing access to unlawful services. Article L. 331-12 of the French intellectual property code makes provision for the adoption of notices by the Authority for the protection and promotion of creation, with the aim of encouraging the signing of voluntary agreements likely to help remedy infringements of copyright and neighbor rights, or of the audiovisual exploitation rights mentioned in article L. 333-10 of the French Sports Code, on electronic communications networks used for the provision of online public communication services. In addition, under the terms of IV of article L. 333-10 of the French Sports Code, Arcom is responsible for adopting model agreements which the rights holders mentioned in I of the same article are invited to sign. The agreement concluded between the parties specifies, in particular, the measures that the parties undertake to take to put an end to any infringement of the exclusive audiovisual exploitation rights of the sports event or competition. The Autorité recommends that the rights holders mentioned in I of article L. 333-10 of the French Sports Code, on the one hand, and any intermediaries implementing measures ordered on the basis of II of article L. 333-10 of the same code, on the other (notably search engine operators, domain name resolution services and virtual private network providers), enter into discussions with a view to concluding agreements that would reflect their joint commitment to fight agains the unlawful diffusion of sports-related events and competitions as effectively as possible. To this end, Arcom is"}]