German Chancellor Proposes Special 'Save Newspapers' Copyright Law
from the yeah,-that'll-work dept
It's beginning to look like German Chancellor Angela Merkel believes the entire point of copyright is not to provide incentive to create, but as a way to hurt Google and protect obsolete local businesses. Last month, we wrote about her complaints concerning the Google book project (where she conveniently left out the fact she had tried to fund the European equivalent). And, now, her party has proposed creating a special new copyright law just for old school news organizations. There aren't many specifics, other than they want to protect news organizations, and this odd claim:"The Internet cannot be a copyright-free zone."The thing is, it's not a "copyright-free" zone. But what the internet has shown is that if you put in place dumb copyright laws that do no more than to prop up business models, people will route around them. That's even more likely to occur if Merkel and her colleagues create a special "protect newspapers" copyright.
The article suggests that the likely proposal would involve "neighboring rights," which are found in some other areas of copyright law -- and would require that the original creator of the content give some kind of permission before any commercial use of the work. So, in theory, any "commercial" aggregator could only aggregate and link to stories from which it has received explicit permission. In other words, it would effectively break the basic premise of the web by not allowing you to summarize and link where you would like.
Not surprisingly, newspaper and magazine publishers in Germany are all for it, though they might want to think twice about that. Just wait until one of their competitors breaks a story, and they're unable to talk about it without "permission." Meanwhile, plenty of people who actually have put some thought into this realize that the "commercial/non-commercial" line is not clear at all. Is a personal blogger who puts up some basic ads on his or her site (even if they earn pennies) a "commercial enterprise"? And what about Google News, which doesn't have ads on the European version of Google News (it only recently put ads on the US version)?
On the whole, this sounds like someone decided they wanted to "help out" the major media companies, but without anyone putting much thought into the actual details or inevitable consequences of such a law. A more cynical person might suggest that this proposal is really designed to gain the current ruling party a bit of support from the mainstream press in Germany...
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: angela merkel, copyright, germany, journalism
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
A message from us hateful grammar Nazis...
"And, now, her party has proposed created a special new copyright law just for old school news organizations."
This would be an example. Especially because you normally right so well, I reread that sentence four or five times after it caused my brain to come to a screeching halt trying to figure out what you were saying.
Just saying....
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: A message from us hateful grammar Nazis...
I'm more of a vocabulary and spelling Nazi though, so maybe I've just become acclimated to small errors.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: A message from us hateful grammar Nazis...
Probably the writer in me due to self-editing where this is a larger issue, but I have trained myself to actually AVOID the whole filling in the blanks thing, so maybe I'm just being picky...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: A message from us hateful grammar Nazis...
Muphry's Law strikes again!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: A message from us hateful grammar Nazis...
Well, to be fair, I said the HE wrote well, not me...
I really wish I could pretend like I was trying to subtely be funny on that won....
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: A message from us hateful grammar Nazis...
However...
I get the impression that Mike, in general, is more of a political agnostic on this blog when it comes to the "two parties"...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: A message from us hateful grammar Nazis...
does he "left" well also? So much for the grammar police...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: A message from us hateful grammar Nazis...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: A message from us hateful grammar Nazis...
Yes, he normally does right himself once it is brought to his attention that his grammar is upside down. However, yours was the very first comment, so it's hard to see what you are complaining about here. Or did you mean that he 'writes' well? Grammar Nazi, genocide thyself.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/04/german-court-finds-2005-e-voting-was-unconstitutiona l-uncool/
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
So while you may not like the politician's message, he is pretty much bang on in reality.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
It would mean that, if a politician gives a speach, or a company issues a press release - THEY as the original creators would have control over how it's reported.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
merkel's peers
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
merkel's peers
[ link to this | view in chronology ]