Slashdot Mirror
Google Threatens French Media Ban
another random user writes in with a BBC story about Google's displeasure with proposed French plans to make search engines pay for content. "Google has threatened to exclude French media sites from search results if France goes ahead with plans to make search engines pay for content. In a letter sent to several ministerial offices, Google said such a law 'would threaten its very existence.' French newspaper publishers have been pushing for the law, saying it is unfair that Google receives advertising revenue from searches for news. French Culture Minister Aurelie Filippetti also favors the idea. She told a parliamentary commission it was 'a tool that it seems important to me to develop.'"
France is out of french money, so where to get more?
France shot itself in the head awhile ago, it's just taking awhile for it to die. They allowed such a massive influx of immigrants in such a short time that they're now struggling to maintain any sense of cultural identity... and when you couple that with exceptionally high rates of unemployment and a lackluster economy, it's just a matter of time before "french" culture slips under the waves.
They're trying with the language police, trying to legislate their way back to having a cultural identity... doing whatever they can to show they still have some influence. Even now, they threaten Google hoping that agreeing will show they still have some -- but it's a gamble. If Google decides France isn't worth it, if they call their bluff, then a formerly mighty nation will have been turned away by a company that wasn't really even on the map 10 years ago.
I wish them luck, I mean I really do... but... they're playing from a position of weakness. I have my doubts they even have enough influence left in them to convince an internet search provider to help them. This isn't a case of France surrendering... this is a case of France being dead broke, financially, economically, and culturally.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
Sayonara, froggy asses!
Fuck systemd. Fuck Redhat. Fuck Soylent, too. Wait, scratch the last one.
Google is making money on this content - and isn't giving the creators of that content a cut of the money that they are making. Put it this way - say you wrote an amazing article. I summarize it and slap advertisements on it and provide a link to your original article. Lets say that my summary of your work brings me a ten thousand bucks. Shouldn't you be entitled to a cut of that ten thousand bucks? It was your work, I just summarized it and provided a link. Or is my only obligation to you a link that may or may not provide you with revenue?
Nobody read French newspapers because they do not provide informations, just raw gov communication. In fact, if most French newspaper still exist that’s because part of french taxes subsidise them.