Happy Holidays: Google News May Be Mortally Wounded
December 25, 2018
I read “Google Says EU Rules Will Force It to Cut News Services.” My first reaction was, “There goes traffic to the news Web sites.” Then I thought, “What traffic?”
The write up reports:
Google has claimed it will be forced to slash the range of news thrown up by its search engine if European rules to protect copyright owners come into force.
Those copyright rules were, in part, triggered by Google itself. The click loving newspapers took a middle of the road approach: Not good, not bad.
Now the EC has cranked out a copyright regulation with Article 11. The lingo refers to “neighboring rights.” The idea is that Google has surfed on hard working journalists’ work. I assume the fraudulent stories in Der Spiegel are not included. (Yikes, a back link. Trouble looms for the Beyond Search goose.)
If the GOOG sticks in a link, the GOOG has to pay the publisher. It gives me a headache to think about the “who”. Many newspapers are pastiches of content from a wide range of sources. The copyright sensitive Associated Press is not going to be happy if one of its syndicated stories is not handled in a way that makes the AP’s legal eagle happy.
To sum up: The Google News death watch has begun. Will the GOOG survive or will it succumb to the EC’s immune system?
Stephen E Arnold, December 25, 2018
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