Web giant Google has threatened to ban French newspapers from its search engine, if the country passes a law that will make it pay for the right to use the paper's news articles online.
The new law, dubbed the ''Google law,'' has been spearheaded by French newspapers, and mirrors a similar law that is under consideration in Germany.
The owners of many French newspapers are in favour of the tax, believing their revenue and copyrights are compromised when Google's search results display their content, the Daily Mail reports.
The search giant's computer-generated news site, Google News, aggregates headlines from news sources worldwide, groups similar stories together and displays them according to each reader's personalised interests.
According to the paper, France's minister for high technology, Fleur Pellerin has revealed that the government is studying the idea and that ‘Europe will be stronger if it can move ahead unified on that idea.’
However, Google says that such a law would “threaten its very existence,” adding that the move was “detrimental to French users, innovation on the Internet and ultimately to the news publishers themselves,” the paper said.
The latest row comes as newspapers accounting for 90 per cent of the circulation in Brazil have abandoned Google News, the paper added.
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