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| Google:picture Ronju130 |
US technology giant Google has threatened to shut down its search engine in Australia. However, the Australian Prime Minister said that he did not care about the threat. The technology giant issued the report on 22 January 2021, following a government attempt to force Google to share royalties with Australian publishers for the use of news content.
Google says it will remove its search engines from the
country if it is forced to pay Australian media outlets to use news content.
Google has been at loggerheads with the Australian government over the issue
for months. Now this dispute took a dramatic turn. Google eventually threatened
the Australian government. Australia is going to make a historic law. The proposed
law would require Google, Facebook and other technology companies to pay local
media outlets to use news content.
Google Australia Managing Director Mel Silva attended the Senate hearing. He said the proposed law is strict. It is not possible to conduct activities under this Act. The law would hurt Google's access to services in Australia.
If the Australian government enforces the law, they will have no choice but to remove Google's search engine from that country. In the wake of Google's threat, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has said his country's lawmakers will not bow to the threat. Scott Morrison said his government is determined to pass the law through parliament this year.
The Prime Minister of Australia said that Australia has a law on what a company can or cannot do in Australia. This law is made through the parliament. Those who want to work under this law are welcome. But they do not respond to any threat. Several Australian lawmakers have called Google's threat "blackmail." At the same time, they say, it is a threat to democracy from large corporations.
For the first time, technology giant Google has struck a deal
with French publishers over copyright. Under the agreement, Google will pay
publishers digital copyright for online content. This information is known in a
report of NBC News.
After months of negotiations, the Alliance of French Press and French Publishers Alliance de la Presse d’Information General (APIG) announced on Thursday, January 21, 2021, that they had reached a framework under which Google would enter into separate agreements with several publishers. Separate agreements have already been signed with several publications, including the French national daily Le Mand and Le Figaro.
French publishers and news agencies have long been bargaining with Google over copyright rules. Google initially talked about other ways to pay for news. According to Google, billions of readers have benefited from the new companies posting their news on Google's website. But an appeals court last year ordered Google to sit down with publishers. In the end, the technology giant, owned by Alphabet, has to make the deal. France is the first country to adopt new EU copyright rules through the treaty.
It was not immediately clear how much money would be paid under the agreement, which was signed between Google and APIG members. Details on how the money will be calculated under the criteria were also not disclosed.
Google has to deal with copyright issues not only in France but also in Australia. On January 22, 2021, Google announced that it would take action if the Australian government forced Google and Facebook to pay media companies to use content. This information came up in a report of the news agency Reuters.
According to Google, if the Australian government implements
the new code, about 20 million Australian users will no longer be able to use
Google search and YouTube. Australia is going to legislate that technology
companies will have to sit in financial discussions with publishers to use
content. The Prime Minister of Australia Scott Morrison has strongly condemned
Google's statement.
