Editing Legal deposit (section)

===France===
{{see also|Books in France}}
{{unreferenced section|date=August 2024}}
In France, legal deposit was initiated by the [[Ordonnance de Montpellier]] of 1537, under which a copy of any published book had to be delivered to the king's library, for conservation purposes. During the following centuries, legal deposit was sometimes used to facilitate censorship and the obligation was thus removed briefly during the [[French Revolution]], under the argument that it violated [[freedom of speech]]. The main depository is the [[Bibliothèque nationale de France]]. Legal deposit is extremely developed and concerns not only printed material but also multimedia archives and even some web pages.

France is also unique in the world in funding the [[Osmothèque]], a legal deposit scent and fragrance archive to preserve [[perfume]] formulas.