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Google and Facebook 'Must Pay For News' From Which They Make Billions (yahoo.com)

Posted by msmash on from the tussle-continues dept.

Internet giants such as Google and Facebook must pay copyright charges for using news content on their platforms, nine European press agencies said. These giant platforms, news agencies said, make vast profits from news content on their platforms. The call comes at a time when the EU is debating a directive to make Facebook, Google, Twitter and other major players pay for the millions of news articles they use or link to. From a report: "Facebook has become the biggest media in the world," the agencies said in a plea published in the French daily Le Monde. "Yet neither Facebook nor Google have a newsroom... They do not have journalists in Syria risking their lives, nor a bureau in Zimbabwe investigating Mugabe's departure, nor editors to check and verify information sent in by reporters on the ground." The agencies argued, "access to free information is supposedly one of the great victories of the internet. But it is a myth."

5 of 168 comments (clear)

  1. Simple solution for Google & Facebook by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Stop linking to any news from the group(s) that don't want them "making billions" by linking news articles.

    Wonder how long those news agencies will take to change their minds?

    --

    "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
    1. Re:Simple solution for Google & Facebook by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 5, Informative

      Do news organizations really not want Google to link to them?

      Of course they want Google to link to them! They also want Google to give them billions and billions of dollars, because, you know, those links are utterly priceless!

      --

      "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
    2. Re: Simple solution for Google & Facebook by bigpat · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I appreciate good journalism. I also understand that 99% of what is out there isn't.

  2. So then leave 'em high and dry by halivar · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Let those new outlets get their own clicks the hard way, instead of having FB and Google funnel people straight to them. Spoiler alert: I won't see their articles anymore.

  3. They did this in 2015 by vandon · · Score: 5, Informative

    https://www.techdirt.com/artic...

      Belgium was the first country to try it, and Google responded by removing complaining publications from Google News. In response, the publications then complained that Google News was being mean to them, even though they were the ones complaining. In Germany, a similar thing happened, whereby Google left the complaining publications in Google News, but without snippets since that was a key aspect of the law. Again, the publishers screamed "unfair" even though they were the ones who had pushed for the law in the first place.