![[Freelance]](../gif/fl3H.png)
More countries want Google and Facebook to pay for news
THE GOVERNMENTS of Canada and New Zealand are the latest to propose laws enabling newspaper publishers to demand that Google and Facebook to pay to use the news they publish. Both the internet giants make their money by selling adverts - in fact between then they monopolise the online advertisement market. The price of ads depend on eyeballs grazing them - and news copy is a powerful way to attract these.
The Canadian Bill to allow newspaper publishers to charge Google and Facebook passed its Second Reading and was sent to Parliamentary Committee on 31 May 2022. It is based on the 2021 Australian law.
As in that Australian law, there is nothing in the Canadian Bill text that refers to payments to journalists. This contrasts with European Union law, which provides that "authors of works incorporated in a press publication receive an appropriate share of the revenues that press publishers receive" from Facebook, and Google. This isn't as clearly specified as we would have liked, but it's better than nothing.
As an aside, on 29 June 2021 a Canadian Act extending tax relief on the cost of newspaper subscriptions received Royal Assent.
The government of New Zealand has promised to introduce a similar measure. As far as we can see, it has not yet published a Bill.
We are approaching the International Federation of Journalists to offer support to our Canadian and New Zealand colleagues in seeking amendments.
10 January 2023
The Canadian Bill passed Parliament in this form on 14 December 2022 [no - see below], though it it not yet in force.
In the US the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act fell with the end of the Congressional session. Like the Australian and Canadian Bills, it amended competition law, not copyright. It would have allowed newspaper publishers and broadcasters to get together to negotiate charges with Google and Faceboook. We have no word on the re-introduction of its provisions in the current Congress.
Like the other measures, it made no mention of payment to journalists. It did specify that the number of journalists employed would be a factor in determinging the amounts to be paid. Under US law copyright in reports and photographs produced by people wotking shifts, as well as those in employment, belongs by default to the organisation that hired the journalists - this is the "work for hire" doctrine.
27 February 2023
The Canadian Bill respecting online communications platforms that make news content available to persons in Canada has not in fact passed Parliament: it is in its Second Reading in the Senate. We apologise for the error. It is still subject to the usual fierce lobbying, notably by Google.
Copyrights and wrongs and a victory for books
Meanwhile, we present a rather different approach to copyright enforcement.
"Attention all shoplifters: please go to GUESS on Regent Street. They've helped themselves to my artwork without asking, how can it be wrong for you to do the same to their clothes?" Flyer attributed to Instagram account Banksy on 18 November 2022