ECJ clarifies collecting societies' rights in relation to the cable retransmission right, but leaves questions unanswered

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has held that Article 9(2)of Directive 93/83 is to be interpreted as meaning that wherea collecting society is deemed to be mandated to manage therights of a copyright owner or holder of related rights whohas not transferred the management of his rights to a collectingsociety that society has the power to exercise that right holder'sright to grant or refuse authorization to a cable operator forcable retransmission and, consequently, its mandate is not limitedto management of the pecuniary aspects of those rights.