EU law precludes so-called “forgotten” books that are no longer commercially available from being digitally reproduced without the authors concerned being informed beforehand and subsequently being allowed to oppose the said reproduction. This decision was made by the European Court of Justice on Wednesday 16 November.
The dispute involves Case C-301/15 and focuses on a French regulation in which ‘out-of-print books’ are defined as books published before 1 January 2001 and which are...