In what looks like a landmark decision, Agence France-Presse (AFP) has instigated a lawsuit against X, formerly known as Twitter, now owned by Elon Musk. The matter at hand is centered around the compensation for news shared on the platform, a topic fueled by Europe’s “neighboring rights” legislation.
The fire ignited when AFP demanded X to disclose data related to the number of times articles from AFP had been shared on the platform. This bold move, according to AFP, is an attempt to encourage X to provide crucial elements required to assess the remuneration owed to them under the neighboring rights legislation.
Under this clause, the European Union in 2019 advanced rights of news organizations and their published works. It made it illegal to reproduce news content without an agreement between the social media platforms operating in the E.U and the original publisher. It resembles a system parallel to copyright royalties for entertainment media — a provision witnessing significant discussions in recent years.
Activities like reproducing or sharing of copyrighted material such as news articles would require payments mandated by law. Image, video and audio files also fall under the ambit of this legislation. The exact media forms that AFP emphasizes in their allegations are presently undetermined, and it remains to be seen how this lawsuit unfolds.
In responding to the lawsuit reports, Elon Musk termed these developments as “bizarre”. This isn’t the first challenge that AFP has pitched against tech giants under the neighboring rights law. It recently battled against Google, resulting in an agreement over the neighboring rights law after a two year friction-filled journey.
While regulations are instrumental in setting operational boundaries, they can often impede growth and innovation. It’s a tricky situation, navigating the right path in a landscape that’s perpetually changing. Balancing innovation and the legal framework is, therefore, of paramount importance. Will this case pave the way for a broad discourse on intellectual property rights and opportunities to update and refine policies? Only time will tell. Until then, the cryptosphere will be engrossed in this unfolding drama.
Source: Cointelegraph
