The Court of Cassation specifies the conditions for being considered co-author of a literary work

Participating in the creation of a literary work to make it accessible to the public, but without inspiring it, is not enough to be qualified as a co-author of this work and therefore be affiliated to the regime of artist-authors, ruled the Court of Cassation. She was called upon to resolve a dispute between Urssaf and a publishing house.

Establishment of an adjustment

After an inspection, it was ordered to pay an adjustment of more than 230,000 euros for the years 2015 and 2016, in particular because it had paid a collection director in royalties, and not in salaries. The latter joined the legal action initiated by the publishing house to contest the adjustment.

Skip the ad

Both argued that participating “actively in the design of the works”, by “accompanying the author during the creative process”, the collection director could legitimately be affiliated to the regime of artist-authors.

Simple participation in creation

To dismiss them, the court of appeal observed that the works in the collection had only been published "under the sole name of the author", who remains "master of the form and especially of the substance of the work" even if the collection director submits "remarks", "proposals" and "recommendations" on its creation.

She therefore estimated that if the latter “participates with the author in creation”, he “does not inspire the work”, simply helping “to make it accessible, coherent and understandable” to the public. Since “true personal creative work by the collection director” has not been demonstrated, he could not be considered a co-author.

The remuneration paid to him by the publishing house must therefore be subject to contributions to the general scheme and not to those of the artist-authors, confirmed the Court of Cassation. (Court of Cassation, September 24, 2026, 2nd civil chamber, n°24-11.505)