Oyogist.com has learned that Facebook said on Thursday it had signed an agreement with a French news publishers’ lobby group regarding copyrights.
The agreement is a “term sheet” of a few pages, reported a source close to the matter, and comes after months of conversations with the Alliance de la presse d’information generale (Alliance of the generalist information press, APIG). a lobby that represents the main newspapers, such as Le Monde, Le Figaro and Les Échos.
The preliminary agreement lists the fundamental principles and copyright fees owed to each of its members, the same source said.
There will be two types of licenses, the source said: one for the use of news content on Facebook’s main platform and one for its Facebook News service, which will select stories from a select set of posts.
The “term sheet” will soon be followed by a framework agreement that will allow APIG members to sign individual licenses with Facebook, the source said.
The U.S. social media giant and the Alliance de la Presse, a lobby representing leading dailies such as Le Monde, Le Figaro and Les Echos, said in a joint statement that the agreement will pave the way for Facebook to pay for news content.
Facebook provided no detail about the content of the agreement, which will allow willing news publishers to feed Facebook News, which will be launched in France in January 2022.
The agreement follows the early adoption by France of a European Union directive that compels large online platforms to open discussions with news publishers about payment for content online.
