Google has been embroiled in a legal tussle with a number of French newspapers over the fact that the search giant made use of brief snippets of news from their websites. These snippets were presented in the ‘Google News’ section. After a rather long episode of litigation between Google and French newspapers, Google has finally agreed to settle the dispute.

The newspapers in question had been trying to push for ongoing royalties that Google must pay in order to use their content. Google, on the other hand, refused to comply to such demands, citing that it merely presented excerpts of their content and was well within its legal rights to do so.

However, the French judicial system had been weighing in favor of the newspapers and after some two months of negotiations, Google has now agreed to set up a $82 million fund which will help French organisations improve their internet operations.

Moreover, French media will be able to avail Google’s advertising services at a discounted rate. Commenting on the settlement, French President boasted, “France is proud to have reached this agreement with Google, the first of its kind in the world.”

Naturally, this move by Google is going to set a precedent for newspapers in other regions of the world to go after the search giant in a similar fashion and bag their own deals. Google’s Eric Schmidt, commenting on the latest development, stated, “These agreements show that through business and technology partnerships we can help stimulate digital innovation for the benefit of consumers, our partners and the wider web.”

Courtesy: BBC

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