https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20141212/07360229413/surprise-spanish-newspapers-beg-government-eu-to-stop-google-news-shutting-down.shtml
> Surprise: Spanish Newspapers Beg Government And EU To Stop Google News > Shutting Down > > Failures > from the bed-made,-lie-in-it dept > Fri, Dec 12th 2014 10:31am — Glyn Moody > Yesterday, we wrote about Google's decision to shut its Google News service > in Spain as a result of that country's insane new copyright law. In a move > that will surprise no one -- except, perhaps, at how little time it took to > happen -- the newspapers association is now begging the Spanish government to > do something about the damage the new law, which the publishers lobbied for, > is about to wreak on the newspaper industry. The Spain Report explains: > >> The Spanish Newspaper Publishers' Association (AEDE) issued a statement >> last night saying that Google News was "not just the closure of another >> service given its dominant market position", recognising that Google’s >> decision: "will undoubtedly have a negative impact on citizens and Spanish >> businesses". >> >> "Given the dominant position of Google (which in Spain controls almost >> all of the searches in the market and is an authentic gateway to the >> Internet), AEDE requires the intervention of Spanish and community >> authorities, and competition authorities, to effectively protect the rights >> of citizens and companies". > > What that intervention might be is not clear. AEDE can hardly expect the > Spanish government to pass a new law making it compulsory for Google to keep > its Google News service running at a loss. The only workable option is to > take the route followed in Germany: to give Google a special deal that allows > it to carry on as before, but without having to pay -- which would gut the > new copyright law completely. > > What makes this situation even more ridiculous is that, according to the > ABC.es newspaper, German publishers are now asking Angela Merkel to change > the manifestly broken German approach to using news snippets online, by > copying the even more backward-looking Spanish law (original in Spanish.) > Once again, it seems that an obsession with "protecting" copyright from > imaginary harm causes otherwise rational people to lose the ability to think > properly. -- Kim Holburn IT Network & Security Consultant T: +61 2 61402408 M: +61 404072753 mailto:[email protected] aim://kimholburn skype://kholburn - PGP Public Key on request _______________________________________________ Link mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
