Bruni sues newspaper over song

Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, the wife of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, is reportedly suing French daily newspaper Midi Libre for pirating a segment from one of her songs on its website.

On February 15 , the newspaper's website took 50 seconds of her Italian adaptation of Douce France, a song by popular mid-20th century French singer Charles Trenet.


Carla Bruni-Sarkozy signs autographs for children as she visits the Paris book fair on March 18. Bruni's foundation tries to fight against illiteracy by giving books to children

After Midi Libre posted the excerpt it was reposted on a number of other websites.

Last month, Bertrand de Labbey, Bruni-Sarkozy's agent, slammed the paper's use of an excerpt of the song.
"This extract was just a sketch, a work-in-progress, and not a finished product," said de Labbey.
u00a0
"This was robbed and an internal investigation was opened to find out how Midi Libre received the song."

Midi Libre denied any wrongdoing, saying it had published the song to commemorate the anniversary of Trenet's death as he came from Narbonne in southwestern France, where the newspaper is circulated.

"We were light years away from thinking that Bruni would be affected by (our decision to air the song)," which it described as part of French national heritage and polled as one of the country's all-time favourites.

The release date of Bruni-Sarkozy's fourth album, recorded in a Paris studio, has not yet been fixed.
This is the first time Bruni-Sarkozy has sued since her marriage to the French president.

But shortly before they were married she sued Irish economy airline Ryanair for using her and Sarkozy's image without permission.

Other than singing, Carla Bruni also starred in a Woody Allen film called Midnight in Paris