The Future of an EU-Wide Ancillary Copyright for Press Publishers Remains Uncertain

News & Events

Brussels, BELGIUM — Discussions around a possible ‘snippet levy’ or ‘news aggregation tax’ targeting online services like search engines and news aggregators have slowly but surely reached Brussels. In the last month alone we witnessed two considerable developments. First, the legal committee of the European Parliament decided the vote down an amendment to MEP Reda’s…

The Controversial Ancillary Copyright for Press Publishers Takes Two Big Hits

EU, Patent Reform & Copyright

Brussels, BELGIUM – Today, news-publisher-backed legislative proposals often called “ancillary copyrights” took major blows in both Brussels and Austria. Also referred to as a ‘snippet levy’, these laws aim to make online services like search engines and news aggregators pay for the display of hyperlinks and short snippets (pieces of text). First, the European Parliament’s…