French capitalist reuses May 68 anticapitalist posters

An interesting debate is taking place on several French blogs (see especially the post by Hervé Le Crosnier on Framasoft : Une campagne publicitaire qui empiète sur le droit moral et les biens communs de la culture) about Leclerc (a large retail stores chain)* using May 1968 posters for its own corporate communication.

One intriguing aspect of the Leclerc advertising campaign is the statement by the Company CEO that the copyrights of the May 1968 posters had been registered by someone and that Leclerc bought them (in Les Echos, 1er mars 2005, p. 19). So far, most people believed that the posters were the collective creation of the Atelier populaire.

Besides the debate on how to protect "collective intellectual property rights" (an innovating, yet tricky, concept which is being explored through Common creative licences), Leclerc hijacking of May 68 posters has given rise to some fascinating cultural jamming.
Here are some examples:
- Leclerc, maréchal des logis.
- Rispotons à Leclerc.
- Le détourneur détourné.

(*) To know more about Leclerc and the likes, you may want to read Les coulisses de la grande distribution (the back office of large retail stores) by Christian Jacquiau (Albin Michel publisher, 2000).