Scandinavian publisher shares ‘AI’ payment with staff

THE SCHIBSTED Media Group, active in Sweden and Norway, in February announced an agreement with OpenAI to allow it to process newspaper articles, to use in language models; and also to be able to display adaptations or short versions of Swedish and Norwegian articles. Schibsted refuses to discuss the sums involved.

Olle Wilöf, a lawyer with the Swedish Union of Journalists tells the Freelance that “Schibsted has been able, in cooperation with the Norwegian Union of Journalists, to enter into a specific agreement which gives 6000 kroner per year (€510, £430) to each employee in Sweden and Norway. Only employed authors at this Norwegian and Swedish newspapers are covered.”

Not everyone is happy. Other publishers would prefer that such payments go through collecting societies.

Kristjan Molstad, a journalist at Aftenposten in Norway, told journalisten.no that “It has always been a challenge that we feel that the language models are parasitising editorial material anyway, without us receiving any compensation. This is a trial scheme...

“Source references will show where the information is taken from, and the authors receive some compensation... You could say it’s a symbolic sum, but as far as I know, this is the first time such an agreement has provided compensation to the authors.”

The agreement doesn't allow use of photos, nor of audiovisual material from the group's Swedish and Norwegian newspapers. It does not give permission to use freelances' work: Trine Eilertsen, editor-in-chief and chief executive of Aftenposten, told a union meeting that “we also keep freelancers out.” The deal also excludes agency copy. Olle Wilöf is informed that “each desk in the media houses is obliged to remove such material before it is sent to Open AI.”

The agreement runs for two years. We do not know hoe much Schibsted is keeping.

It has happened against the background of the world mainstream of authors' rights law, in which all “authors” - including employed photographers and reporters - have rights in their work. Only in the English-speaking world, and very few other countries, do employers own copyright by default. In most countries the concept of “assigning” your copyright is nonsensical.

© Mike Holderness

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