3 yıl önce

Google to pay German media for online content under ''milestone'' deal

The agreement is a first between the global tech giant and a number of publishers, serving to strengthen partnerships following an EU copyright dispute over media contents.

AFP

The agreement is the first with publishers in Germany after the country legislated on so-called neighbouring rights

Google has agreed to a "milestone" deal with a number of German media outlets on payment for the use of their content online.

German newspapers Zeit, Handelsblatt and Tagesspiegel, as well as weekly magazines such as Spiegel, WirtschaftsWoche and Manager Magazin, among others, are party to the deal with the American tech giant, which will pay them for its use of their news content.

"For both us and our partners, these copyright agreements represent a milestone in strengthening successful partnerships," Google said on Thursday in a blog post, adding that it was pursuing discussions with other publishers.

"Platforms like Google are important partners for us, not least because they bring a lot of traffic to our websites and we can commercially leverage this reach," said Rainer Esser, the managing director of the publishing group behind German weekly newspaper Zeit.

The two sides had found a "mutually beneficial solution", the managing director of Spiegel Stefan Ottlitz said in a statement.

Details as to the size of the deal were not given.

Copyright dispute

The agreement is the first with publishers in Germany after the country legislated on so-called neighbouring rights, developed from an EU copyright directive. The issue includes multiple disputes between internet giants and media overpayment for the use of online news and other content.

Global tech giants have run into a wide range of disputes with Brussels and EU member states over taxation, abuse of their dominant market power, privacy issues and making money from journalistic content without sharing the revenue.

To tackle this, the EU directive created the form of copyright called neighbouring rights that would allow outlets to demand compensation for use of their content.

German lawmakers implemented the directive in the country in June and the agreement follows similar deals in other EU countries and with other tech companies.

SOURCE: AFP