Paris (AFP)

For a month, Google and the French press clash over the application of the "neighboring right", which will come into effect Thursday in France. What does this right provide, and why are the new rules that Google has started to adapt to, are they worth the ire of the press and the government?

- What is the neighboring right?

This is a principle similar to copyright, designed to help publishers of newspapers and magazines, as well as news agencies (including AFP) to be paid by the giants of the Net when their content is reused on Internet.

Article 15 of the European Copyright Directive, adopted at the end of March by the European Parliament following an intense lobbying battle, established the rules for the use of articles and their remaining price. to negotiate between newspaper publishers and platforms.

France is the first country in the European Union (EU) to implement this reform, thanks to a law passed on July 24, which comes into force Thursday.

- What are the new rules applied by Google?

To comply with this reform, Google last month presented the new rules it will apply in France to European press publishers from Thursday (and it began to deploy a few days ago).

Specifically, the digital giant will no longer display excerpts of articles and other reduced photos and videos (or "thumbnails"), in the results of its search engine as well as in its Google news service, unless the publishers l 'allow to do it for free.

If publishers refuse the free use of these extracts and vignettes, Google will continue to reference their information, but in a much more austere form than at present (a simple title and a link).

Google's chief information officer, Richard Gingras, said his group basically refused to pay publishers for their content. Instead, he highlights the huge traffic that Google brings to press sites, as well as its many free tools available to journalists and its support fund for media innovation.

- How can the press respond?

Newspaper publishers see Google's position as a way of circumventing the spirit of the law, and a diktat they can hardly escape. Because if they refuse to accept the free use of their content, they are certain to see the traffic to their sites fall, given the very important role that Google weighs in the origin of their visitors.

Many have already accepted the free use of extracts and vignettes and most should resolve.

But, according to a source close to the file, we must not see a surrender. It would rather be a strategic retreat before moving the battle legally.

"Info sites have no choice to avoid the black screen Thursday (that apply these rules, ed), but that does not mean that they adhere to the message of Google," says to the AFP this source, which ensures that a "collective approach" for a legal recourse is in preparation.

- What can the government do in this battle?

France has rallied to the top of the state for the adoption of the European copyright reform, and it is back to the net since the announcement of Google.

The government wants to fight on several fronts, including mobilizing Europeans and asking the question of a possible abuse of the "ultra dominant position" that enjoys Google on the Web. The French Competition Authority seized the file in early October.

"We will not let it go and we are very clearly asking the national and European competition authorities to examine and initiate all the possible procedures and beyond as soon as possible," said President Emmanuel Macron, after addressing the issue with the German Chancellor during the Franco-German Council held in Toulouse in mid-October.

He further proposed to develop "new rules to regulate large platforms", with "faster sanction mechanisms".

© 2019 AFP