EU court adviser says Gemini can breach press publishers’ rights

His line has two triggers. One concerns access: reaching the article by dodging a paywall or a bar on automated visitors. The other concerns the answer: a retelling so faithful to the piece that the reader has no reason to open it, PPC Land explains. Reported facts stay free for anyone to use, he says.

Neither side leaves empty-handed. Google gets Szpunar’s treatment of model training as generally permitted under the EU’s text and data mining exception, which lets software read material in bulk, a point Google acknowledged in its statement. He also doubts the publisher’s one example meets the test. The publisher gets his rejection of Google’s argument that free articles carry an implied licence for chatbot reuse, and his view that rewording alone does not settle the matter.

Advertisers sit downstream of this. Google’s terms say it will not claim ownership of what Gemini generates, and no clause grants or limits use in paid ads, as we recorded on 24 October (our rights table).

Szpunar’s reading, which the judges have yet to rule on, protects a publisher’s wording and leaves facts free. Google’s terms neither grant nor limit ad use, so a brand taking a line from a Gemini news summary has no clause to point to if that wording turns out to be the publisher’s.