Whether FR would have to pay would depend on whether the JCPA actually repeals the Fair Use doctrine.
That is the confusing part.
“Under the terms of the bill now, with the text of this amendment in place, the only thing it seems to do is to force the platforms to pay the fair market value, specifically for the right to acquire, crawl, or index the publisher’s content.
Now let that sink in for a minute.
Currently they can do that for free under the fair use doctrine of our intellectual property laws. They can already do that, and they can do that for free…
The bill specifically says that it doesn’t change our copyright or intellectual property laws.
So, what exactly are they paying the publishers for? The platforms are paying publishers for a property right, but it’s a property right that they don’t own… under our intellectual property laws as they now exist.”