Thank you to all of you for the presentations.
On May 8, 2018, the Fédération nationale des communications, FNC, which represents workers in Canadian communication and cultural industries, stated that Facebook and Google absorb a large majority of advertising revenues that previously went to newspapers and other news outlets, which has deprived the news industry of helping to sustain itself.
Along similar lines, News Media Canada referred to news aggregators, or your company operators, as free riders.
As part of their submission, FNC suggested creating a new category of copyright work, a journalistic work, which would provide journalists a collective administered right for remuneration for the dissemination of their works on the Internet.
If such a right existed, would it oblige Google, Facebook and other online service providers to pay royalties for news articles? How might this affect your operation?
Article 11 of the European Union's proposed directive on copyright in the digital single market would affirm the copyright of publishers for digital use of press publications. Would this include the publication or distribution of publications on Facebook and Google News? How would we ensure compliance with this new law? It was proposed.
I don't know if you're familiar with it, but it certainly would elevate and perhaps help the news agencies that are being shared on your platforms.