Publishing, press and media
The value of information is now becoming detached from its distribution: captured by platforms, then by artificial intelligence models that feed on editorial work without ever paying for it.
In this context, publishing exposes as much as it informs.
Every publication engages the liability of its director of publication, exposes the newsroom to proceedings brought by those it implicates, and requires a constant balance between the right to inform and the risk of litigation. That risk is now compounded by organised reputational attacks aimed at discrediting a newsroom rather than correcting it.
The firm already assists publishers in their litigation against providers of artificial intelligence models concerning the unauthorised reuse of protected content, an area where the law is still struggling to keep pace with technology.
Your experience
An algorithm summarises your articles without any reader visiting your site; a model has already been trained on your work without any licence being signed. The newsroom finds out about the use after the fact, never before.
Every accusation can turn into proceedings (defamation, insult, damage to reputation), whether the newsroom is the author or the victim.
Our expertise
Providers of artificial intelligence models have fed on editorial work without ever paying for it: a balance of power that seems overwhelming, of the same nature as those other sectors face against the major platforms. We fight this battle alongside publishers, with the same logic of coordinated action that underpins our reputation in litigation.
Upstream, we structure the rights in published content, a practice still in its infancy that we are building case by case. And when defamation strikes, we defend both the director of publication being prosecuted and the publication whose reputation has been harmed.
We also assist with the capital structuring of press titles (entry of a shareholder, cross-shareholdings) in compliance with the pluralism and transparency rules specific to them, and we advise newsrooms on protecting the confidentiality of sources against disclosure requests.
Publishing is entering a decade in which one question remains unresolved everywhere: will content producers be paid their fair value by artificial intelligence providers, or will they continue to feed them for free? The licensing market is taking shape before our eyes at prices that currently favour the operators; tomorrow, the market for structured editorial creation will be worth more than raw content.
