Google’s YouTube signs music deal with French agency

Google Inc’s YouTube unit signed a deal with the main French music-rights collection agency to pay artists for use of their works.

YouTube will compensate content creators represented by Sacem, a Paris-based organization that collects royalties on behalf of more than 100,000 members, for works viewed in France through 2012, the two sides said in a statement today.

“We are in discussions with similar companies in other countries,” said Christophe Muller, director of partnerships for YouTube in Europe and the Middle East. France is the eighth country where YouTube has such deals with local rights agencies.

Google, based in Mountain View, California, is working to improve its relationship with French industry groups and regulators after a series of battles over privacy and access to copyrighted content. This month, after meeting with President Nicolas Sarkozy, Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt promised that Google, owner of the world’s largest search engine, will increase investment in France.

In a separate move, German music rights collection agency Gema said today it is pursuing its case before the Hamburg Regional Court against Google over artists’ works on YouTube after losing a request for a preliminary ruling on August 27.

Myriam Boublil, a spokeswoman for Google in France, declined to comment on the German case.

The same court ruled against YouTube this month over broadcasts of copyrighted material. Sacem is one of seven rights collection agencies supporting GEMA’s suit. GEMA tracks how protected music is used in Germany on behalf of collectors in other countries, such as Sacem.

“Over the last month, there have been tensions between Gema and YouTube” over the withdrawal of videos, said Bernard Miyet, chief executive officer of Sacem, at a press conference announcing the deal. “We hope that in Germany, for the sake of all, there will be an agreement reached between Gema and YouTube.”

Sacem and YouTube will collaborate to track how often viewers click on videos to renegotiate the compensation agreement for a successor deal after the new contract ends in 2012.

Miyet said competition regulations prevented Sacem from consulting with collection societies in other countries on how they reached their own deals with YouTube, and prohibit him from disclosing the financial terms of Sacem’s own deal. Muller said the French deal most closely resembled one YouTube made in Italy.

European Union regulators ruled in July 2008 that royalty- collecting groups had to remove restrictions on licensing, enabling broadcasters to get pan-European rights.