Google has been told it must extend the multi-million pound offer it made to French publishers to those across the continent.
Earlier this month, the Search giant agreed to make a €60 million (UK£51) payment in to a special fund to help French publishers develop their online businesses.
The French were peeved that Google makes bucket loads of cash by selling advertising on search results featuring its content, but does pay those news websites anything for their troubles.
The presence of copyrighted headlines, URLs, photos and article introductions within search results entitled the sites to a cut, according to the publishers. Google refused to pay for the links, but did settle with the big payout.
Writing cheques
With the Belgians agreeing for a similar deal and publishers in Germany also seeking a payout, the European Publishers Council says Google needs to start writing cheques across the continent.
Francisco Pinto Balsemao of the EPC told Reuters: "Search engines get more than 90 percent of revenues from online advertising and a substantial part of these come directly or indirectly from the free access to professional news or entertainment content produced by the media,"
"The situation is very bad for media groups. This use is carried out without the authorization from copyright holders or without any payment in return. So, all aggregators, like Google, should pay.
"Google's openness to negotiate and talk looks like a good step that must now be followed in other countries."
Via Reuters
