Last 30th August, the controversy  on the protection of intellectual property rights in the digital era has comed to the fore of International newspapers because of the new law, approved by the German Government, aimed at protecting the copyrights of publishers of online newspapers.

The so-called “Lex Google” will oblige search engines to pay a fee to publishers, mainly for Google News. The rule intended to ensure a fair share of the royalties that the Mountain View’s Giant gets, according to many, in a  ”parasitic” way.

As expected, the public opinion was split: on one hand, the broad support of the German publishers and those who wants a strong protection of the copyright; on the
other hand strong criticism from the “green party” and the “pirate party”.

Google, immediately after the approval, said that it was a “black day” for the net.

The German Ministry of Culture, Bernd Naumann (of the christian-democratic party)
is deeply convinced that the Government has done an important thing for the protection of copyright in the digital era.

10 days after the France arose: French publishers pretend a law that oblige search
engines to pay for the use of their content. The heads of the newspapers “Nouvelle Observateur”, “Figaro” ed “Echoes” required a law to the French government, similar to the German “Lex Google”.

Frencis Morel, President and General Director of “Echoes” declared that this law will undermine mainly the Mountain View’s Giant, that wheighs on the market more than 90% on the “online search”. After that Morel criticized the fiscal evasion of “Big G” that, as well know, is based in Ireland.

Marc Feuillée, General Director of the Figarò Group precised that, differently from the German law, directed mainly against news aggregators like “Google News”, the proposed French law is aiming at the “web search”, in particular the content.

Feuillée argues that the text could be submitted to the Parliament and become law by the end of 2012.