Copyright, as the tug-of-war between publishers and Google continues in France
An appeals court in France upheld the antitrust authority's order to Google to negotiate with French publishing companies and news agencies for news pay
The tug-of-war in France between Google and publishers over the copyright directive continues.
On Thursday, a French appeals court upheld the Paris antitrust authority's order to the tech giant Mountain View to negotiate with French publishing companies and news agencies to pay for their content. Reuters reported.
In fact, last April the French competition authority ruled that Big G had to pay publishers for the reuse of their content.
Now Google will have to negotiate with publishers in France about payment to use their content. This opens the way to a sector agreement.
But today's ruling is just the latest chapter in a long struggle with European news companies over pay for the news displayed in Google's search results.
Just a week ago, Google announced an investment of one billion dollars over three years to support publishing through partnerships with publishing companies on a global scale.
WHAT THE FRENCH COURT HAS ESTABLISHED
On Thursday, the Paris Court of Appeals upheld the order imposed by the French competition regulator on Google to negotiate with media groups over online news revenues.
As Reuters points out, the ruling could have repercussions outside of France.
Google will therefore have to deal with publishers and news agencies to find a way to remunerate them according to European legislation. The EU copyright directive allows publishers to request a commission from online platforms for showing news snippets.
THE GOOGLE REPLY
"We have appealed for legal clarity on certain parts of the order and will now review the decision of the Paris appeals court," Google said in a statement.
“Our priority remains to reach an agreement with the French publishers and news agencies,” emphasizes the proprietary company Alphabet.
THE LOCATION OF BIG G IN FRANCE
In reality, initially it was not exactly an agreement that Google sought with the publishers.
In 2019, France was the first country to ratify and enforce the copyright law adopted by the European Parliament which includes so-called related that include the use of news in search results.
To comply with the legislation, Google had presented the new rules for European publishers in France. In particular, the digital giant would no longer show excerpts of articles and other reduced photos and videos (or "thumbnails"), in the results of its search engine and in its Google News service, unless the publishers had agreed to do so. for free.
The behemoth argued that news companies benefit from receiving millions of hits to their websites in return.
THE FRENCH CLOSE ON COPYRIGHT
But the French publishers did not stand by and watch. Media groups (including Les Echos, Le Figaro, L'Hebdo and AFP) filed a complaint against Google with the French competition regulator last November, arguing that the company was not negotiating in good faith to resolve the dispute.
THE DIKTAT OF THE PARIS COMPETITION AUTHORITY
In April, the competition authority ordered Google "to conduct good faith negotiations with publishers and news agencies on remuneration for the reuse of their protected content."
Google contested that decision.
THE HAND HELD BY GOOGLE TO EDITORS IN FRANCE
But in a sign that the Californian company is eager to conclude a deal, last Wednesday it announced that it had submitted a copyright offer to the French press.
"We want to support journalism and ensure continuous access to quality content for as many people as possible." Google France director Sebastien Missoffe said in a joint statement with French newspapers.
THE PRESSURES ON THE CALIFORNIAN COLOSSUS ALSO FROM AUSTRALIA
Not forgetting that France isn't the only country where Google has come under pressure from the government to share its revenue with local media.
In the past few months, Google and Facebook have clashed with Australian regulators over a proposed code of conduct that would allow publishers to negotiate a pay for their content.
The Australian bill could go to parliament by December. If they were to publish news without paying publishers, Facebook and Google would immediately end up in the crosshairs of the Accc, the Australian competition authority. The penalties could go up to 10% of Facebook and Google's annual revenue in Australia.
THE LAUNCH OF THE SHOWCASE
Waiting to know how the negotiations between Google and the French media groups will be concluded, the Mountain View giant has played another card in its favor.
Last week, Google announced it would invest $ 1 billion in partnership with news publishers around the world to develop a new “Showcase” product.
In this way, the Californian giant aims to establish new conditions of exchange with media groups and avoid potentially more expensive actions by regulators.
CEO Sundar Pichai said Google has already signed with nearly 200 publishers in several countries, including Der Spiegel in Germany and Folha de S. Paulo in Brazil.
The French publishers are missing from the list (besides those from the United States). However, on Wednesday Google made the new Showcase service part of the broad agreement reached with the French press.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/copyright-come-prosegue-il-braccio-di-ferro-tra-editori-e-google-in-francia/ on Thu, 08 Oct 2020 07:38:14 +0000.