Alphabet Inc, the parent company of Google, on May 11 announced that it had reached an agreement with at least 300 European news publishers to abide by a recently passed European Union copyright regulation. That is to publish their stories on the search engine.
The internet giant has struck partnerships with national, local, and specialist new organizations. It includes countries like Germany, Hungary, France, Austria, the Netherlands, and Ireland. The company further said that it is in talks with several other countries as well.
Google didn’t disclose how much will they pay nor did they disclose the names of the organizations.
The European Copyright Directive which came into force in 2019, gives publishers extra rights over their content which has been enacted into local legislation by the European Union countries. It allows publishers to opt for a payment method whenever online platforms use their content.
With the new law, search engines like Google are linked so as to use snippets of news content. At the same time giving publishers new rights when extended previews are used online.
However, it does not indicate where the line between the two is drawn. The agreements are intended to avoid costly and time-consuming legal battles on the distinction.
Last year, Google had announced copyright agreements with several French news publishers and several significant German publications.
In addition, the business announced that it will begin rolling out a new platform to offer licensing deals to thousands of other European publishers in Germany and Hungary.