Google Generates Traffic For European Newspapers, Gets Sued By Them.

[Clash Perez]

PARIS—Google Inc. committed Friday to spend EUR60 million ($82 million) to help settle a festering dispute with French newspaper and magazine publishers over whether the search giant should pay them to link to their stories on the Web.

The company said it would fully finance a dedicated fund aimed at helping French news media navigate the transition to the Internet, at a time when print advertising is quickly moving online.

In return, newspapers will drop their demands that Google pay them for every click on online versions of their stories—a demand Google has said would have led it to remove all French newspapers from its index.

France's President François Hollande unveiled the accord Friday evening at a surprise news conference with Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt, who stopped by Paris for a final negotiating session during a trip to Europe.

"We made history in a very good way for the citizens of France," Mr. Schmidt said.
The detente—reached after three months of tense negotiations under the eye of a government-appointed mediator—is the latest step for Google as it tries to contain a battle that has been brewing across Europe. Google reached a somewhat similar, albeit much smaller, agreement to settle six years of litigation with Belgian newspapers in December.

Google is still fighting its cause in Germany, where lawmakers are considering a bill aimed at making search engines such as Google pay publishers.
Google's deal with French publishers could help it grab a bigger slice of the country's online advertising market.

As part of Friday's pact, Google said it would work with publishers to help them use Google's online advertising services—a move that could let papers opt to allow Google to sell ads on French newspaper websites, in return for giving Google a cut of the business.

Google's EUR60 million fund isn't a blank check for newspapers and magazines, Google and newspaper representatives said. Instead, publications will propose projects that will help speed their transition to digital media, or create new ways for them to make money online.

"The object of this fund is not to finance ailing newspapers, but to help them migrate better to the digital world as fast as possible," said Nathalie Collin, head of the news-media coalition that negotiated on behalf of the papers.

The dispute between the newspapers and Google heated up last fall, after French publishers began pushing for a law that would create a new copyright in France for Web links, aimed at making search engines pay to refer to newspapers' content.

After meeting with Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt in Paris at the end of October, Mr. Hollande said he would instead appoint a mediator—and would only consider a law if publishers and the U.S. company couldn't come to an agreement by the end of the year.

Talks weren't easy. Representatives of newspapers and Google remained far apart on key issues, such as compensation, near the end of December, as the deadline set by Mr. Hollande neared its expiration, according to one person familiar with the process. At the time, the government decided to extend talks by a month, to ease the pressure, the person added.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...048811706.html

I don't understand the basis for this. Isn't Google providing traffic to the websites that they wouldn't otherwise have? I would think it is a mutually-beneficial situation.

[Mazmaz]

Hey! I read about this in my French class! I didn't know it was real news though lol that's ridiculous.

[falloutboy14]

Perhaps they were trying to keep the fact they are online a secret.

[hey]

The fuck? They should be happy they don't have to pay google for providing them traffic.

[Osede]

lol France.

[arus2001]

Could maybe see a point if it basically led to DDoSing a pitiful server and local people couldn't actually get their local news, but that doesn't sound like the case.

[Minions]

lol. So google will stop listing their website. After that: Google sued for not listing my website!

Don't they already have the ability to stop google from searching their websites with the anti-bot code?

[hey]

lol. So google will stop listing their website. After that: Google sued for not listing my website!

Don't they already have the ability to stop google from searching their websites with the anti-bot code?

robots.txt, yes.

[Ddz]

Any way to finagle some dough, I guess.

[miokomioko]

This is textbook dough finaglin'.

[Mazmaz]

From what I read in French class, I believe the problem is that Google has its own "News" tab, where it takes information from news agencies and puts it as its own news. Or something.

[Minions]

From what I read in French class, I believe the problem is that Google has its own "News" tab, where it takes information from news agencies and puts it as its own news. Or something.

Don't see how they would aggregate this for websites if they had the robotxt code to stop bots from searching.

[Clash Perez]

Google's News tab shows the headlines, and directly links to the site's page. It's not as if it's taking articles from other sites and publishing it as its own news.

Are the newspapers pissed about having their front page bypassed? idgi

[Mazmaz]

Are the newspapers pissed about having their front page bypassed? idgi

It might be this. Honestly, it was an article I had to read during my final exam, so I don't have access to it or else I'd go back and re-read it.

[Kerberoz]

Google's News tab shows the headlines, and directly links to the site's page. It's not as if it's taking articles from other sites and publishing it as its own news.

Yep, and this is why the Google News app fucking sucks.