The issue of neighboring rights is once again in the news. If you are not familiar with this concept, know that it is a European directive which obliges web giants to remunerate the media for the use and distribution of their online content.
X(Twitter) does not react
And indeed, several publications from three press groups (Les Echos-Le Parisien, The World And Le Figaro) as well as Agence France Presse have decided to attack X (formerly Twitter) before the Paris Judicial Court. They accuse the social network of using their content without their consent.
Pierre Louette, CEO of the Les Echos-Le Parisien Group, doesn’t beat around the bush: “The use of content produced by our 700 journalists must be subject to remuneration under the European directive on neighboring rights. X, like other platforms that generate traffic and revenue through our content, must comply. It is about safeguarding quality information, the true foundation of our democracy. »
In fact, and as the economic newspaper points out, The platform controlled by Elon Musk does not even seem determined to negotiate with its players. Note that the leader is regularly hostile towards the media in general and sometimes says he wishes they would disappear.
In a press release, the newspapers also underlined that “did not (…) comply” to this decision for the moment “thus demonstrating its invariable desire to evade its legal obligations”.
The burning issue of neighboring rights
We will therefore have to see what the Court decides, but this lack of reaction is enough to enrage the French media. Clearly, this issue of neighboring rights has been talked about a lot lately in France. This Tuesday, November 12, we learned that around fifty members of the Alliance for the General Information Press (APIG), an organization which brings together 300 press titles, is suing Microsoft before the Paris Judicial Court.
These titles demand several tens of millions of euros from the Redmond firm, particularly for content used on the Bing search engine, the MSN web portal, LinkedIn, and even Microsoft Start. For its part, the Tech giant claims to continue negotiations and wants to be more constructive than Elon Musk’s social network. More information in our previous article here.
