Elon Musk's X faces copyright lawsuit in France over news content
Elon Musk's company, formerly known as Twitter, is facing a lawsuit in France for alleged copyright infringement. The Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency shared that it has taken legal action against the social media platform. AFP claims that X has outright refused to discuss compensation for using AFP's news content on its platform.
AFP is seeking an urgent court order in Paris to force X to provide the necessary information on how it reuses AFP's content. This information is needed to calculate the amount of money AFP is owed under France's neighboring rights legislation.
In 2019, the European Union made a decision to extend copyright law to include excerpts of news content that are shared on digital platforms. This means that using parts of news articles or content when sharing them online now falls under the scope of copyright protection in the EU.
After news of the lawsuit emerged, Musk responded in his typical manner by replying to the news tweet. It appears that he disagrees with AFP's position.
In response to the Canadian law, tech giants Meta and Google have strongly opposed the measure and have hinted at the possibility of cutting off news availability in Canada instead of complying with the law. They previously used similar aggressive tactics in Australia, where they lobbied against the news bargaining code and pushed for amendments before it was eventually confirmed by lawmakers.
AFP is seeking an urgent court order in Paris to force X to provide the necessary information on how it reuses AFP's content. This information is needed to calculate the amount of money AFP is owed under France's neighboring rights legislation.
After news of the lawsuit emerged, Musk responded in his typical manner by replying to the news tweet. It appears that he disagrees with AFP's position.
This is bizarre. They want us to pay *them* for traffic to their site where they make advertising revenue and we don’t!?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 3, 2023
Not only in the European Union but also in other regions, digital platforms are required by law to negotiate with publishers for remunerating news reuse. Canada recently passed the Online News Act, which also obliges tech platforms to negotiate with publishers for fair revenue sharing of their content.
In response to the Canadian law, tech giants Meta and Google have strongly opposed the measure and have hinted at the possibility of cutting off news availability in Canada instead of complying with the law. They previously used similar aggressive tactics in Australia, where they lobbied against the news bargaining code and pushed for amendments before it was eventually confirmed by lawmakers.
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