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The late Marc Soulier, also known as Ayerdhal As reported by this blog through a  breaking news post , yesterday the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) issued its  decision  in  Soulier and Doke , C-301/15. This was a reference for a preliminary ruling from the French Conseil d’État (Council of State) and concerned the compatibility with EU law  [read: the  InfoSoc Directive ]  of the 2012  French law  to allow and regulate the digital exploitation of out-of-print 20th century books. As explained more at length  here ,  by introducing into the French  C ode de la propriété intellectuelle   (CPI)  a new chapter  [ Chapter IV  - Articles L 134-1 to L 134-9, subsequently amended]  to Title III of Book I, this piece of legislation has vested  approved collecting societies with the right to authorise the reproduction and the representation in digital form of out-of-print books, ...

Is a national law that provides  ab initio  that a collecting society - rather than the author of a work - has the right to authorise the reproduction and communication to the public of such work compatible with EU law? This - in a nutshell - is the question at the centre of what is probably  [of course, after  GS Media , on which see the string of IPKat posts  here ]  the most important copyright case of the year at the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU):  Soulier and Doke , C-301/15. Why this case matters The reason is soon explained: this reference for a preliminary ruling from the French  Conseil d’État is not just a case concerning the compatibility with EU law of the French  loi   ( Law No 2012-287 of 1 March 2012 ) to allow and regulate the digital exploitation of out-of-print 20th century books, but - more generally - a case that questions the actual freedom of Member States to legislate independently o...