Will Rupert Murdoch Pay Me For Making Money Off Links To Techdirt?
from the I'm-sending-an-invoice dept
You may recall that over in the UK there has been a bit of a battle between online news aggregator NewsNow (which, again, in my experience is one of the best aggregators out there) and various newspapers who are demanding payment from the company. The issue is not NewsNow's "free" aggregator, but the fact that NewsNow makes most of its money from offering businesses custom, private aggregation of links. NewsNow isn't providing full content at all -- just links and headlines. But the complaint from newspapers is that NewsNow is selling this service to companies and making money from it -- and thus, they deserve a cut.Now, as the battle has escalated, it appears that Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. has taken the next step and blocked links coming from NewsNow. It's not clear what happens to NewsNow users who click on News Corp. stories, but apparently they don't get the story. The link above goes through all of the many, many reasons that it is absolutely a bad idea, and extremely "anti-internet" to block links from anywhere, but this whole thing got me thinking.
Based on Murdoch and News Corp's reasoning here, I believe Murdoch owes me money.
After all, News Corp. is most certainly a commercial enterprise. And, as we all know, the Wall Street Journal charges many people money in the form of subscription fees (just like NewsNow does) for access to the information it provides. Now, over the past couple of years, the Wall Street Journal online has linked to Techdirt more than a couple of times. A quick search of their archives shows at least nine stories over the past two years. So, if Murdoch is saying that NewsNow can't charge a subscription and link to him, why is it okay for him to charge a subscription and link to me?
Clearly, the answer is that Rupert Murdoch owes me money. Consider my invoice on the way... Of course, the alternative answer is that Murdoch doesn't owe me a dime... and NewsNow doesn't owe Murdoch either. But how can that be? It isn't like we've seen Rupert Murdoch suggest that rules that apply to others don't apply to him. Oh wait....
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: linking, payment
Companies: news corp., newsnow
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
True
If you can't get your finances in order than you don't deserve to be around. Me personally, I just bought a Ford because Ford was the only auto company not to take bailout money. I will never buy from GM (Government Motors)
TW2000
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: True
What has Obama done since he's been in office - I'm talking 100% non-partisan here.
He's given money to big business
He's given money to wall street
He's given money to Bankers
How many small businesses got 'bail-outs'? Any?
GM sure did, so did FreddyMac and FannyMae.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: True
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: True
No, they were done under both, for different industries, and measures could have been taken to either repeal or limit Bush's bailouts.
They're both nothing more than evil mouthpieces for other, more powerful interests.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: True
there would be no need for the bailouts if bush inc had been doing their jobs
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: True
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Me too!
2. Link to this Post
3. Profit!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Me too!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Permission to Link...
But isn't this whole "you have to give me compensation" just another version of the "you can't link to me without permission" claim? Haven't we already debunked this logic?
Of course, they can block anyone they like, including people who have "clicked in" from sources they don't like (assuming they can tell and tell correctly).
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100108/1446417680.shtml
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
But wait, I forgot...Goggle is stealing from them too right?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Unfortunately...
News Corp views themselves as the dog and sees everything else as a tail. In reality, News Corp is the region directly south of the tail.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
about that Google thing
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
WTF!
Plus once I get there from a news aggragator, I normally see an interestign article or two that the local news sites has as a link on their own page. I go to no daily news type site, I only go through aggragators, so why woudl they not want the links. They are losing ad revenue with every person they click away. It is funny when peopel let greed get them to make stupid, short term decisions. You at least knwo why they are failing.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Pssst! Pssst!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Rupert Murdoch Loves To Steal Content and Ideas
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: LOAN OFFER FOR REAL PEOPLE
Is this a spambot post to advertise that anuge fellow or god?
Hey mike, how can we report spam?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]