Following the passage of the European Union’s Copyright Directive last year, Google is now in discussions with French news publishers on paying for their news content, according to news reports. Article 15 of the EU Copyright Directive created a so-called “Publishers’ Right” that gives news publishers the right to protect their content online. France became the first country to implement the Publishers’ Right in July, after which Google indicated that it would refuse to pay for news content in France and would simply display headlines in its search results unless publishers waived their rights. A competition claim was filed against Google for using its market dominance to evade the law, and a ruling is expected to come in March. According to the Financial Times, Google is now negotiating with select French publishers, including Le Monde and Figaro, about direct content payments. It is unclear what form the payments would take. Read more here.
Members of the News/Media Alliance staff have contributed to this post.