Google and Associated Press have revealed that they signed an agreement aimed to settle the dispute over the copyrighted news materials returned by Google News searches. As the partnership of the two organizations was done under a nondisclosure clause, financial details and other terms of the contract remain a closely guarded secret. The stories and photographs owned by Associated Press will find their way onto a new service that will be integrated in Google News in the following months.

As the AP copyrighted materials will be paid for, Google News has set a precedent admitting to a certain level of copyright infringement in its former policies as the news division conducted its strategy under the "fair use" protections of copyright law. "Google News is fully consistent with fair use and always has been," a Mountain View representative reiterated on the occasion. "Google has always believed that content providers and publishers should be fairly compensated for their work so they can continue producing high quality information."

The AP and Google agreement was the result of several months of negotiation, disclosed Jane Seagrave, AP's vice-president of new media markets, but he refused to comment the payment method his company and Google agreed upon. "We are happy to be dealing with Google as we are with all the major superpowers on the Internet," Seagrave said. "We are always looking for new ways to innovate." While AP has chosen the negotiation path, in a similar case, AFP sued the Mountain View Company alleging copyright infringement and seeking $17.5 million in damages in a lawsuit still pending.