Ancillary copyright law
Google pays 3.2 million euros a year for press content
A Google lettering in front of the new Google Cloud data center building in Hanau. photo
© Arne Dedert/dpa
Google and press publishers in Germany have been arguing for years about how much the company has to pay for the use of press content. There were high demands – now there is an interim solution.
The payments to Corint Media correspond to the interim proposal of the responsible arbitration board at the German Patent and Trademark Office, which was published last March. The amount is far from the collecting society’s original demand. Corint Media had originally demanded a payment of 420 million euros from Google as appropriate compensation. The collecting society’s repertoire brings together around a third of German press ancillary copyrights. The publishers represented by Corint Media include the largest European media house Axel Springer (“Bild”, “Welt”), but also a number of regional publishers.
Conflict not yet over
The interim solution does not yet end the conflict over appropriate compensation for media use by Google in Germany. The main proceedings of the arbitration proceedings at the German Patent and Trademark Office are continuing. Corint expects a significantly higher sum in this main proceedings. Google, on the other hand, assumes that the 3.2 million euros per year now agreed are final and sufficient.
Google pointed out that two years after the ancillary copyright came into force for press publishers, it had already concluded direct license agreements with more than 470 publications. These included, among others, “Der Spiegel”, “Die Zeit”, the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” as well as the media groups Funke, Madsack as well as the media houses RTL Deutschland, Ströer (T-Online), the Südwestdeutsche Medienholding and the “Tagesspiegel” in Berlin.
Gerrit Rabenstein, Head of News Partnerships Google in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, explained that the multi-year interim agreement on the licensing of the press ancillary copyrights managed by Corint Media follows the arbitration board’s proposal, which both parties have accepted.
Corint Media explained that the interim agreement ended a long-standing phase in which Google unlawfully used the press content represented by the collecting society without paying any remuneration for it. “In the ongoing main proceedings before the arbitration board, Corint Media continues to advocate for the remuneration to be paid by Google to increase significantly.”