The Digital War: Google and French publishers sign agreement over copyright

In a first in Europe, Alphabet’s Google and a group of French publishers said on Thursday they had agreed a general framework over copyrights under which the U.S. tech giant will pay publishers for content online.

Google has only signed individual agreements with a few publications so far, including national dailies Le Monde and Le Figaro.

The principles agreed between the French publishers’ lobby, Alliance de la presse d’information générale (APIG), and Google include criteria such as the daily volume of publications, monthly internet traffic and “contribution to political and general information,” they said in a statement.

Google and APIG did not say how much money could be distributed under the agreement to APIG members, which include national and local publishers. Details on how the remuneration would be calculated under the criteria were not disclosed.

The announcement follows months of bargaining between Google, French publishers and news agencies over how to apply revamped EU copyright rules, which allow publishers to demand a fee from online platforms showing extracts of their news.