French parliament adopts copyright reform after EU law

The French parliament on Tuesday adopted a copyright reform to protect media against the use of their news by tech giants, the first national legislature to agree the new EU law.

The revamp to European copyright legislation, adopted by the European Parliament in March, was agreed by the National Assembly lower house in a final reading.

"We can be proud to be the first country to enshrine the EU directive into national law," said Culture Minister Franck Riester.

"This text is absolutely essential for our democracy and the survival of an independent and free press," he added.

The reform was loudly backed by media companies and artists, who want to secure revenue from web platforms that allow users to distribute their content.

But it was strongly opposed by internet freedom activists and by Silicon Valley, especially Google, which makes huge profits from the advertising generated alongside the content it hosts.

Major publishers, including AFP, have pushed hard for the reform, seeing it as an urgent remedy to safeguard quality journalism and the plummeting earnings of traditional media companies.