France's AFP sues X over reusing news content
Agence France-Presse (AFP) is suing X, previously known as Twitter, for copyright infringement. The news agency has filed a lawsuit against the Elon Musk-owned microblogging platform under French copyright law. AFP claims that X won't discuss remuneration for sharing its news content on the platform. According to AFP, X has shown a "clear refusal" to enter into negotiations regarding neighboring rights for the press.
Musk called the lawsuit bizarre
AFP wants the Judicial Court of Paris to issue an urgent injunction, forcing X to provide the information needed to calculate the money owed under France's neighboring rights legislation. Musk termed AFP's lawsuit "bizarre." "They want us to pay *them* for traffic to their site where they make advertising revenue and we don't!?" he wrote on X.
Neighboring rights law covers all forms of news content
The neighboring rights legislation was adopted by the European Union in 2019 and implemented in French law soon after. It covers news content except for the shortest snippets of news content, including text, photos, videos, and infographics, for up to two years after publication. Google was penalized by France's antitrust authority for falling foul of publishers' neighboring rights and abusing its dominant position.
