French news agency AFP sues Elon Musk’s X and requests compensation for the use of its content, sparking global dialogues on copyright laws.
Elon Musk and his X (Twitter) appear to have never-ending issues. The French news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP) has filed a lawsuit against X for alleged copyright violations. The complaint stems from X’s refusal to negotiate payment for the distribution of AFP news content on its platform.
X Was Sued for Copyright Violations
AFP requests an immediate injunction from a Parisian court that would compel X to disclose information regarding the repurposing of AFP’s content. This will aid in calculating the compensation to which the AFP is entitled under the French statute on neighboring rights.
The European Union enacted the copyright extension in 2019, and French law adopted it in the same year, protecting even the shortest snippets of news content distributed on digital platforms. This policy covers a broad range of content types for two years after publication, including infographics, photos, videos, and article excerpts.
“Today, AFP announces that it has taken legal action to obtain an urgent injunction before the Judicial Court of Paris. This move is aimed at compelling Twitter, by the law, to provide all the necessary elements required for assessing the remuneration owed to AFP under the neighboring rights legislation,” the news agency stated in a press release.
Musk Responds To News
Musk responded to AFP’s legal action by posting on X, “This is bizarre. They want us to pay them for traffic to their site where they make advertising revenue and we don’t!?”
The lawsuit is filed at a time when digital platforms worldwide are mandated by law to negotiate with publishers for news reuse, as evidenced by Australia’s news bargaining code aimed at Google and Facebook and Canada’s recent Online News Act.
Despite this global trend, the competition authority seems less likely to intervene in X’s alleged violation, given its non-dominant position in general search services.
