Google signs 5-year deal to pay for news from AFP
A journalist with AFP holds a camera. Reuters
Gulf Today Report
Google and AFP announced on Wednesday that they have signed an unprecedented European agreement under which the Internet giant will pay the international news agency for five years in exchange for its materials used by its search engine, in a crucial step that culminated in negotiations between the two parties that took 18 months.
The material allowance that Agence France-Presse will receive from Google is a lump sum whose value has been kept secret.
This is the first agreement of its kind entered into by a news agency under the European Directive on “Rights Related to Copyright” approved by the European Union in March 2019.
In the same year, France became the first country to adopt this European directive into law at the national level.
This agreement is "pioneering" and "includes the entire European Union, in all AFP languages, including in countries that have not adopted the directive in their domestic laws," said Fabrice Fries, chairman of the AFP board.
Agence France-Presse produces newsletters, photos, videos, infographics and interactives and broadcasts them to subscribers around the world in six languages.
"This is the culmination of a long battle" that began while negotiating the European Directive on Neighboring Rights, Fries added.
"We fought for news agencies to be fully qualified," the chief executive told AFP. The difference with a commercial partnership is that an agreement under related rights is intended to be sustainable.”
"We sign this agreement to turn the page and move forward," Sebastien Messoff, general manager of Google-France, told AFP reporters. We are here to prove that the parties can coexist and that we have reached a solution.”
The conclusion of this agreement came after negotiations between the two parties were almost stuck during the summer.
The general manager of Google in France added that the signing of this agreement "allows us to open other issues."
The two companies said in a joint statement that the agreement on related rights is expected to be completed "very soon" by a "program related to combating misinformation."
Under this program, Agence France-Presse, in particular, will offer training courses on several continents on how to verify information.
