The Alphabet Google unit has signed deals to pay more than 300 publishers in Germany, France and four other EU countries for their news and will roll out a tool to make it easier for others to sign up, the company told Reuters .
The move, which will be publicly announced later on Wednesday, follows the adoption three years ago of EU copyright rules that require Google and other online platforms to pay musicians, performers, authors, news editors and journalists for the use of their work.
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News publishers, among Google’s fiercest critics, have long urged governments to ensure online platforms pay fair compensation for their content. Last year, Australia made such payments mandatory while Canada introduced similar legislation last month.
“So far we have agreements that cover over 300 national, local and specialist news publications in Germany, Hungary, France, Austria, the Netherlands and Ireland, with many more discussions in course,” Sulina Connal, director of news and publishing partnerships, said in a blog post seen by Reuters and expected to be published later on Wednesday.
The blog did not specify how much the editors were paid.
Two-thirds of this group are German publishers, including Der Spiegel, Die Zeit and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
“We are now announcing the launch of a new tool to make offers to thousands of other news publishers, starting with Germany and Hungary, and rolling it out to other EU countries in over the next few months,” Connal said in the blog post.
The tool offers publishers an extended news preview agreement that allows Google to display snippets and thumbnails for a license fee.
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