Some time ago, about five years or so, Google made a statement on their web support page in which they reported on Google News. The content of his statement was as follows:
“Due to Spanish legislation, we are sorry to inform you that Google News has closed in Spain and Spanish publishers cannot include their content in this product”
The legislation they were referring to was the well-known Spanish Intellectual Property Law and the Canon AEDE. This was what made Google decide to shut down Google News in 2014.
In the same way, they explained the reasons that led them to make that decision through the following statement.
“In Spain, the legislation requires all publications to charge services such as Google News for displaying any fragment of their content, whether they want to or not. This situation is unsustainable for Google News.”
This legislation required to pay a fee for the collective license if Google wanted to publish fragments of the news or only the headlines.
As an alternative, in order to maintain their commitment to journalism, they proposed access to another version in Spanish, the Mexican version of news. For those who already used Google Play Newsstand and wanted to access news content, they could do so in the Play Newsstand web application.
Well, it seems that things could change because we have learned that Google is holding conversations with Spanish media to close individual agreements. With these agreements, not only would Google News return to Spain again, but a change would also be planned. This change would be the adjustment to the new European Copyright Law by Intellectual Property.
New Intellectual Property Law and Google News
Well, if everything goes smoothly, the implementation of this new Law would arrive in June of this year 2021. With it, instead of forcing technology giants like Google to pay, they would only have to share their benefits or profits with the Spanish media.
Can this mean the definitive return of Google News to our country? What is known at the moment is that Google has signed commercial agreements with media in three countries and hopes to close them soon in Spain. It has also announced agreements with the media in Germany, Australia and Brazil to pay them for displaying their content in the search engine. In Germany it has only signed with the newspaper Der Spiegel, which are the largest weekly magazine in Europe and the most important in the country. It is a decisive turnaround in the constant war between media and technology. War in which the European Commission has even mediated and which is now about to break out in Spain.
Here this adaptation process is going to be especially fragile. The Ministry of Culture had finalized a draft of the transposition but Moncloa has stopped it at the last minute. From the Presidency it has been seen as something too hasty. According to some statements “In Spain there are insurmountable obstacles that must be solved first, mainly article 32.2 of the current Intellectual Property Law”
Welcome Mr. News?
The Spanish Center for Reprographic Rights (CEDRO, Centro Español de Derechos Reprográficos ) was the body in charge of demanding and managing the charges. This body did not have the sufficient capacity to undertake negotiations with technology multinationals. The international buzz that was generated by the closure of Google News was too scandalous for the government to risk another closure.
After the undoubted failure of the Canon AEDE, different Spanish publishers began to assess the new search engine conditions. Why be negotiating with Cedro, who has proven his incompetence, when you can negotiate directly with Google? That is the foundation on which some of the media are currently building. And we say some because the truth is that not everyone agrees since there are those who do not think it is a good approach. There is a diversity of positions with multiple discrepancies. On the one hand there are those who want to “bleed” Google and on the other those who do not ask for any kind of financial compensation.
Be that as it may, Google remains firm in its decision that if article 32.2 is not repealed, no progress can be made. And it is as a result of that statement where both Moncloa and many media have begun to rethink the argument. There are several sources that assure that if Google succeeds in making article 32.2 disappear, we would be facing the imperative return of Google News to Spain.
Google would only need to close deals with the media to remunerate them for content and comply with the European copyright directive. The big difference is that it would not be mandatory and would depend on the agreements you sign with each of them.
Until the new European legislation reaches Spain it is hasty to ensure the return of Google News. We will be attentive to what is happening and we will remain in a state of waiting.