TheEuropean Copyright Directive,
which is being implemented by countries in the European Union, gives new rights to news publishers
online while ensuring that consumers can continue to freely access information through online
platforms. The Directive allows search engines such as Google to freely link to and use “very short extracts”
of press publishers' content. The law also creates new rights for publishers when longer previews
of their content are displayed online - but without defining what exactly a very short extract or
a longer preview is.
We’ve been working with governments and publishers across the European Union as countries transpose
the Directive into national law. We’ve opened discussions with news publishers to enter into
agreements over the use of protected content. Since 2021, we have concluded agreements with more
than1,000 European publications,
associations or collecting societies, with many more discussions ongoing. This builds on our
long-standing commitment to the news industry as one of the world’sbiggest financial supportersof journalism.
We intended to follow the same approach in Czechia, but the enactment of the updated Copyright Law
has made it impossible to enter into agreements like this with Czech news publishers, as it
subjects the display of potentially protected content to an unreasonable financial and operational
risk to our business, because even for routine updates to our services we are risking a highly
disproportionate fine.
What the enactment of the amendment to the Czech Copyright Act means for Google's services in
Czechia
Given the risks described above, we are removing the display of previews of EU press
publication content that might be protected under the new law (snippets, thumbnails, and video
previews) in Google Search, Discover, and News in Czechia. Headlines and links will remain in
place. We have also had to make the difficult decision to discontinue GoogleNews Showcase,
our licensing program that pays publishers to curate their content across Google News
and Discover, in Czechia, as the constraints placed on our products by this amendment are too
stringent and the financial and operational risk to our business is untenable. The changes will
be rolled out gradually over the course of the coming weeks.
Here's an example of what a result of an EU press publication could look like in Search in
Czechia both before and after the law is enacted.
Before:
After:
Throughout this legislative debate, we've voiced our concerns about the impact of these proposals
on Czech internet users. For more about our position, please read our blog postWorkable path forward with Publishers in Czechia.
If you have site-specific questions, please reach out toenp-cz@google.com.
Sulina Connal, Managing Director News Partnerships
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],[],[[["\u003cp\u003eGoogle is removing previews of EU press publication content (snippets, thumbnails, and video previews) in Google Search, Discover, and News in Czechia due to the updated Copyright Law.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eGoogle has discontinued News Showcase in Czechia as the constraints placed on its products by the amendment are too stringent.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eHeadlines and links to EU press publications will remain visible in Google Search results.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eGoogle has been working with publishers across the EU to enter into agreements over the use of protected content and has concluded agreements with over 1,000 publications.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eGoogle believes the enactment of the amendment to the Czech Copyright Act subjects the display of potentially protected content to unreasonable financial and operational risk.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],["Google, while adhering to the European Copyright Directive, has encountered challenges with Czechia's updated Copyright Law. This law poses significant financial and operational risks, preventing Google from forming agreements with Czech news publishers. Consequently, Google is removing previews (snippets, thumbnails, video previews) of EU press content from its services in Czechia, although headlines and links remain. Google also discontinued its News Showcase program in Czechia. These changes will be implemented gradually.\n"],null,["# Updates to Google's Services in Czechia in Light of the Czech Transposition of the European Copyright Directive\n\nMonday, December 12, 2022\n\n*We also [published this blog post in Czech](/search/blog/2022/12/google-services-in-czechia?hl=cs).*\n\n\nThe [European Copyright Directive](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2019/790/oj),\nwhich is being implemented by countries in the European Union, gives new rights to news publishers\nonline while ensuring that consumers can continue to freely access information through online\nplatforms. The Directive allows search engines such as Google to freely link to and use \"very short extracts\"\nof press publishers' content. The law also creates new rights for publishers when longer previews\nof their content are displayed online - but without defining what exactly a very short extract or\na longer preview is.\n\n\nWe've been working with governments and publishers across the European Union as countries transpose\nthe Directive into national law. We've opened discussions with news publishers to enter into\nagreements over the use of protected content. Since 2021, we have concluded agreements with more\nthan [1,000 European publications](https://blog.google/around-the-globe/google-europe/google-licenses-content-from-news-publishers-under-the-eu-copyright-directive/),\nassociations or collecting societies, with many more discussions ongoing. This builds on our\nlong-standing commitment to the news industry as one of the world's [biggest financial supporters](https://blog.google/supportingnews/#:~:text=Each%20month%2C%20people%20click%20through,with%20readers%20and%20earn%20money.)\nof journalism.\n\n\nWe intended to follow the same approach in Czechia, but the enactment of the updated Copyright Law\nhas made it impossible to enter into agreements like this with Czech news publishers, as it\nsubjects the display of potentially protected content to an unreasonable financial and operational\nrisk to our business, because even for routine updates to our services we are risking a highly\ndisproportionate fine.\n\nWhat the enactment of the amendment to the Czech Copyright Act means for Google's services in\nCzechia\n-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\nGiven the risks described above, we are removing the display of previews of EU press\npublication content that might be protected under the new law (snippets, thumbnails, and video\npreviews) in Google Search, Discover, and News in Czechia. Headlines and links will remain in\nplace. We have also had to make the difficult decision to discontinue Google\n[News Showcase](https://blog.google/products/news/google-news-showcase-launch-czechia/),\nour licensing program that pays publishers to curate their content across Google News\nand Discover, in Czechia, as the constraints placed on our products by this amendment are too\nstringent and the financial and operational risk to our business is untenable. The changes will\nbe rolled out gradually over the course of the coming weeks.\n\n\nHere's an example of what a result of an EU press publication could look like in Search in\nCzechia both before and after the law is enacted.\n\n\n**Before:**\n\n\n**After:**\n\n\nThroughout this legislative debate, we've voiced our concerns about the impact of these proposals\non Czech internet users. For more about our position, please read our blog post\n[Workable path forward with Publishers in Czechia](https://czechrepublic.googleblog.com/2022/09/konstruktivni-cesta-ke-spolupraci-s.html).\nIf you have site-specific questions, please reach out to [enp-cz@google.com](mailto:enp-cz@google.com).\n\nSulina Connal, Managing Director News Partnerships"]]
