Google to pay French publishers for online content under new copyright agreement

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 US tech giant will pay publishers for content online.

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.