Google News will operate again in Spain after copyright conflict

Google announced on Wednesday the reopening in Spain in early 2022 of its news site after seven years, following the approval of a law that will force it to pay Spanish media.

“In 2014, we were forced to shut down Google News in Spain due to local legislation. Today we can announce that Google News will soon reopen in our country “said the American company in its official blog for Spain.

This decision is made after the approval of a Spanish law that “Transposes the European Directive on copyright”.

“In the coming months, we will work with the media to reach agreements that protect their rights under the new law.”added Google, setting the reopening date to “Early next year”.

The European directive adopted in 2019 after more than two years of intense debate obliges platforms such as Google or Facebook to pay the media better for the articles they use.

It also reinforces the negotiating position of creators (composers, musicians, filmmakers …) by forcing platforms to be legally responsible for the content they host.

“The new copyright law will allow Spanish media – large and small – to freely decide how their content can be found on the internet and how they generate income with them”, ensures Google.

Google He argued for a long time that he had no business paying the media for the article excerpts that appeared in his results, claiming that the views they generated more than compensated publishers.

In 2014 it closed the service in Spain in protest of a law that stipulated that the media could not waive the right to collect compensation, a law that became known as “the Google rate.”

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Deshawn