Montreal, February 20, 2025 — Copibec and La Presse have announced a new agreement to expand Copibec’s role in managing copyright on the content produced by La Presse. This agreement now includes digital uses and reproductions carried out as part of full-text digital press reviews, media analysis, web monitoring, as well as aggregation.
Effective May 1, 2025, this agreement marks a major step forward in copyright management in Quebec. It offers innovative solutions tailored to current market realities, particularly regarding the digital use of journalistic content. Under this agreement, Copibec will grant sublicenses for the reproduction of La Presse content, thereby ensuring fair compensation for the publisher and content creators. This initiative ensures appropriate compensation for the distribution and use of La Presse articles.
By collaborating with Copibec, La Presse reaffirms its commitment to ethical and structured copyright management, while facilitating responsible access to its content for businesses, institutions, and other professional users.
“This partnership strengthens our mission to protect copyright in a context where digital uses are multiplying. We’re honoured to be working with a prestigious institution such as La Presse,” said Christian Laforce, Copibec’s Executive Director.
“We’re proud of our partnership with Copibec, which reflects our commitment to protecting the value of our content in the digital universe. Thanks to this agreement, we can make sure that our journalism content is used in compliance with copyright and that content creators are compensated fairly,” explained Yann Pineau, La Presse’s Senior Director, Continuous Improvement and Production.
About Copibec
Copibec, whose official name is Société québécoise de gestion collective des droits de reproduction, is the Quebec-based representative for over 30,000 authors and 1,400 publishers. Since its creation as a copyright collective in 1997, it has been offering licensing services that give users legal access to an extensive catalogue of content protected under the Copyright Act. At the international level, it has entered into agreements with over 30 foreign copyright collectives. Its member organizations include the Union des écrivaines et écrivains québécois (UNEQ), Association nationale des éditeurs de livres (ANEL), Regroupement des artistes en arts visuels (RAAV), Association des journalistes indépendants du Québec (AJIQ), Fédération professionnelle des journalistes du Québec (FPQJ), Société de développement des périodiques culturels québécois (SODEP), Les Quotidiens du Québec and Les Hebdos du Québec.