TLDR: French press associations, representing 800 newspapers and magazines, are taking coordinated action against public digital databases like Common Crawl, C4, and Oscar. They accuse these platforms of collecting and distributing copyrighted journalistic content without authorization, which is then used to train generative AI services like ChatGPT without compensation. The groups are demanding content removal and preparing legal action to protect the economic model of professional journalism in France.
French press associations have launched a significant offensive to safeguard journalistic copyright against the unauthorized use of their content by generative artificial intelligence (AI) services. Two prominent professional organizations, the Apig (general news medial alliance) and the Sepm (magazine publisher’s union), collectively representing 800 newspapers and magazines and over half of France’s journalists, announced ‘coordinated action’ on Monday, September 2, 2025. Their target: public online databases that are extensively used to train AI applications, such as ChatGPT.
The core of their grievance lies in the alleged collection and distribution of copyrighted articles ‘without authorisation or any access restrictions’ by these public-access datasets, including Common Crawl, C4, and Oscar. These datasets are created by bots that ‘crawl’ the internet, gathering vast amounts of data. The press groups argue that this system allows generative AI service providers to ‘source press material through these intermediaries, avoiding any direct negotiations with publishers and respect of intellectual property rights.’ This practice, they contend, directly jeopardizes the economic viability of France’s professional journalism sector.
The strategy outlined by the French press organizations involves several key steps: first, identifying the specific copyrighted content belonging to their members within these datasets; second, formally requesting the removal of this content; and third, preparing legal action against entities that have profited from the unauthorized use of their material.
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Pierre Petillault, CEO of Apig, highlighted the challenges in the current landscape, stating that ‘the legal framework to protect copyrighted material is not solid.’ He also pointed to a tension between the political will to support authors’ rights and France’s broader interest in fostering technological innovation. Petillault remarked, ‘There is this tension between innovation and intellectual property that unfortunately sometimes leads public authorities to be a little complacent towards large digital platforms. There is the temptation to promote innovation’ and grant European AI companies flexibility to compete with their counterparts in the United States. Despite this, the organizations firmly assert that protecting the ‘professional information’ sector is paramount.
