As of now, when internet users turn to an aggregator or search tool to help them find news, they are shown a little snippet of news articles underneath its headline. A good example of this is when you use Google News.
However, the European Commission says those snippets are copyrighted, and the EU has proposed a change in copyright law to address the issue.
If the proposal is implemented, then publishers could receive money from aggregators. For example, if you’re in Italy and an excerpt from an Italian publication is shown to you in Google News, then that publication could demand money from Google. This is even if only a sentence was shown to you.
Google and other internet giants, such as Facebook, will have to reach deals with newspapers and content providers before they can use their snippets. The plans, which will be unveiled in September, are to dilute the power that companies like Google have. Officials say internet giants have a large share of the market and that gives them an advantage when it comes to commercial negotiations.
Christian Wigand, a European Commission spokesman, said the proposal isn’t about placing a levy on search engines. Instead, the goal is to ensure Europeans can access a wide and diverse content, but legally offered content.
In the past, Spain and Germany have launched similar initiatives. However, publishers haven’t received much financial support in those countries.
The commission did note that the solutions in Spain and Germany have not proven effective at addressing publishers’ concerns and problems so far. It added that their proposal may encourage more harmonized action within the EU.
When Spain passed a law requiring Google to shell out money to publishers for displaying their work, Google ended up shutting down the news service in Spain. In Germany, Google refused to pay to publish any content, other than headlines and links. As a result, Google told German publishers to offer snippets for free or face removals of snippets from Google News.
Axel Springer SE, a German media company, eventually granted the search engine giant a free license. This was because traffic from Google’s search engine and Google News took a major dive.
