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Google News May Shut in Some Countries Over EU Plans To Charge Tax For Links (theguardian.com)
Google's top news executive has refused to rule out shutting down Google News in EU countries, as the search engine faces a battle with Brussels over plans to charge a "link tax" for using news stories. The Guardian reports: Richard Gingras, the search engine's vice-president of news, said while "it's not desirable to shut down services" the company was deeply concerned about the current proposals, which are designed to compensate struggling news publishers if snippets of their articles appear in search results. He told the Guardian that the future of Google News could depend on whether the EU was willing to alter the phrasing of the legislation. "We can't make a decision until we see the final language," he said. He pointed out the last time a government attempted to charge Google for links, in 2014 in Spain, the company responded by shutting down Google News in the country. Spain passed a law requiring aggregation sites to pay for news links, in a bid to prop up struggling print news outlets. Google responded by closing the service for Spanish consumers, which he said prompted a fall in traffic to Spanish news websites. "We would not like to see that happen in Europe," said Gingras. "Right now what we want to do is work with stakeholders."
The EU wants to charge a tax for links? Jesus. I'm glad I opted not to move there a few years back. The EU has gone batshit crazy already.
If I lived in the EU right now I would tell my boss to suck it and take the first flight out of there.
This is probably also passed by politicians that have never used a computer or don't understand what the impact of the legislation is? Every time I think there is a chance for the EU we get news of some old school thinking screwing with the road forward.
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
Never use it personally, so I won't care either way.
That said I think this is exactly the right response by google.
A link tax is completely retarded and the only way is to inconvenience people until they get off their ass and make it clear to all their politicians that the laws they are enacting are stupid..
Us Europeans will not miss it one bit, the European printing business that was behind this legislation however will miss it quite a bit since Google News is a major source of users that end up on the various news papers sites.
All they'd have to do is charge the news outlets for listing their articles. Problem solved. Lol.
Spain passed a law requiring aggregation sites to pay for news links, in a bid to prop up struggling print news outlets. Google responded by closing the service for Spanish consumers, which he said prompted a fall in traffic to Spanish news websites.
And there it is, same as usual. Google is directing traffic to these site, helping them generate ad revenue, but somehow still owes them. Don't misunderstand me here, I'm no Google cheerleader and the EU does sometimes make good points regarding some issues (like privacy), but I know a shakedown when I see one. As usual, the EU is just trying to skim money off the American companies to make up for their own lack of homegrown innovation. Notice how they'll never target Ecosia or Qwant for any of their ridiculous stuff.
Google will not pull Google News out for any appreciable amount of time, since if they do another company will quickly step in and fill the void.
Google knows it needs all that data about its users in order to keep its true customers happy.
#DeleteChrome
The original problem was the Google News would show enough of the story that people didn't go to the originating site to read it. When asked to reduce it to the headline and a link...
On the other hand, headlnes are often bogus attention-grabbers, serving as both eye- and click-bait. Allowing aggregators to post only headline plus link encourages news sites to accelerate this trend.
The user needs enough context beyond the headline to determine whether the article is about something he actually wants to read. Of course, giving him this means he doesn't follow some links, which might be what is producing the signal that the EU legislators are concerned about.
There's a (thick) line between giving enough context to let the user skip the uninteresting and irrelevant chaff (good) and enough more that he gets the valuable reporting without following the link (I.P. appropriation).
Allowing aggregators to occupy some patch on that line is an application of "fair use". Legislation to define that region needs to take this into account. "Just headline plus link" is clearly outside that patch.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
> Google will not pull Google News out for any appreciable amount of time, since if they do another company will quickly step in and fill the void.
Not if the competitor also has to pay per link. No one will touch that business. There's no business model in individual clicks with aggregation.
Google News can go fuck itself with a rusty cheese grater for all I care.
But still, the idea to tax these things is a delicate issue. Having read the currently approved proposal of Article 11 I know that the wording is pretty vague. Certainly not enough to be sure for what they really want. In its current form it would allow "mere hyperlinks accompanied by individual words". Mere hyperlinks, sure. Those usually also contain the head line. But what the hell is "individual words" supposed to mean here? How much leeway can you have here as a for profit company? Would you be able to write a small synopsis of the article in your own individual words?
Every time I hear about Europe and the internet/tech its about how EU wants to tax/fine/punish/legislate/regulate something. Never about the latest thing, or the cool new invention, or whatever. Always taxes-fines-punish-etc.
This all the stranger because there's a lot of Europeans per se who've done all kinds of things for the internet. Lee invented the web, Guido invented Python, Linus invented all kinds of stuff. And they all work in the US now for US companies. Nokia gone. Ericsson hurting. Phillips now cheap Wal Mart TV's. Thompson...who's that? lol. ARM is "European" in sense of a street address for corporate HQ and nothing else.
Poor Europe.