EU: Publishers could get compensation for online snippets

A legislative proposal from the European Union’s executive branch means publishers could seek remuneration from news services, such as Google news search, for listing snippets of their content.

If the new EU-wide legislation is accepted, it will give publishers “legal certainty and bargaining power” against news aggregators using their content, according to the European Commission. The publishers would be granted additional rights over the online use of their work, with the copyright of an article lasting for 20 years after its original publication.

Before it becomes official, EU’s commissioners will need to formally sign off the proposal.