European Parliament keen to throw news publishers a bone Newspapers in Europe are closer to winning the right to ask Google and Facebook to remove or pay for the news story snippets they scrape for their free services – although there's nothing compelling Google (or anyone else) to actually do anything. The furore over "fake news" last year has helped sway MEPs. Put simply, the new …
I remember the first time I drank from a bottle with no label, too.
Well,no. I remember waking up four days later in the basement of a dry cleaning establishment aware of a pounding sensation in my head (caused by a Finnish dwarf beating me with a chair leg), wearing nothing but lederhosen several sizes too small and having lost my keys and wallet.
To this day I cannot father children and am still wondering why the dwarf was wearing only acupuncture needles.
Martin LOOFAH KONG had a DRONE BUT your''res SOUNDS ODDAH. I DRANK from a battle WITH NO LABELL and ITVTURNS out ITBWAS MY POP's PEE. HE'd BEEN chuggin' The WHISKY LIKE A THURSTY COW, so INFINISHED THE BATTLE, cuz WHROE I come FROM YOU don't waste WHISKY EVEN JF it is second HAND. It SURE TESTES goood..,
Google manages the ranking of news sites presented to users. Facebook controls the algorithm about how many of my friends will see a news link I post. Twitter and the Reg don't act as middlemen - whatever I post is there for anyone who follows me or reads my posts.
So an argument can be made that if the company is inserting itself in the question of whether the end user sees a given article or not that's where they step in, while most other sites including Twitter and El Reg who do not exercise any such control are left alone.
Not saying I support governments inserting themselves into this, just pointing out that it isn't necessarily a problematic law applied in this manner.
"Newspapers in Europe are closer to winning the right to ask Google and Facebook to remove or pay for the news story snippets they scrape for their free services"
Publishers can already ask Google News or Google Search to skip their stories. They just have to update their robots.txt
https://support.google.com/news/publisher/answer/93977?hl=en
The real issue here is that the publishers want to have their cake and eat it. They want to be listed (they lose traffic if they are not) - but they want to be paid anyway.
I'm not sure how this changes the issue. The fundamental problem is that the news sites need aggregators like Google and Facebook fare more than the reverse; and if market forces were to decide what the aggregators should pay for linking to news sites, the price would likely end up negative — the news sites would accept paying Facebook and Google for the privilege of receiving traffic from them. Though governments would likely step in and make that illegal.
A free and independent press might well be a requirement for a well-functioning democracy, but it seems to me that at the moment, the press will simply need state subsidies to survive.
According to Google, to have your content included in Google News :
Publishers interested in having their sites included in Google News can apply for inclusion here. We can't guarantee that we'll add the source, but we'll be happy to review it.
So if you request it, knowing their Terms and Conditions, you have no right to then expect them to pay for it !
You have to love politicians that stick their noses into things they are so clueless about, that it beggars belief.
The future is indeed bleak when our leaders hubris, born out of complete ignorance, can affect our lives so invasivly.
You mean those real nice newspapers that hack into peoples phones, hound people constantly, use illegal surveillance, sordid kiss and tells etc ?
Look like they all deserve each other, especially Foolbook.
Government hates things it can't control
"The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness: only power, pure power"
Don't call me Shirley, just call me cynical.
If i were Google I'd add a line to the Ts&Cs: if you want us to link to your publication, the price will be whatever you charge us for carrying your content, plus $1 per hit. If a story gets zero hits, then Google merely breaks even. If a story gets 1,000,000 hits, then someone owes Google a million dollars. Pay up or get hauled into court for breach of contract.
I'd add another line: should some busybody government attempt to invalidate the above, then Google will simply no longer carry your content at any price. Enjoy your right to be forgotten, boys.
I'd write to Mountain View, except I'm sure that they've already thought of this.
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