MPs approve amendment to copyright law drawing criticism from Google

The lower house approved an amendment to Czech copyright law on Friday that will mean tech giants such as Google, Twitter and Facebook will have to obtain a licence from media outlets in order to be able to use their articles commercially. Google has criticised the measure, saying it will make access to trustworthy and reliable news more difficult, and said it may react by considerably limiting the length of news excerpts from Czech media sources in its search results. Czech Culture Minister Martin Baxa has spoken out in support of the measure, saying that it will not weaken the fight against disinformation or limit the development of information services.