Surprise: Spanish Newspapers Beg Government And EU To Stop Google News Shutting Down
from the bed-made,-lie-in-it dept
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".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.
"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 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.
Follow me @glynmoody on Twitter or identi.ca, and +glynmoody on Google+
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: ancillary copyright, copyright, google news, google tax, snippets, spain
Companies: google
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Sweet, sweet schadenfreude
You'd think so, but I bet you'd be wrong, they will probably try that very thing, perhaps via ultimatum('You either continue to offer news services, paying out the nose for them, or you remove all services from the country').
We're not talking about rational, reasonable people here, but politicians and parasites. They really, really don't like backing down or admitting to screwing up.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Sweet, sweet schadenfreude
The the politicos will look even dumber.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Sweet, sweet schadenfreude
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Sweet, sweet schadenfreude
At which point, Google would be in a bind, as they're officially based out of Ireland. Moving back to the US would cost them a LOT of money in taxes alone.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Sweet, sweet schadenfreude
Or they'd just set up their European operations as a separate company. Moving the rest of their operations out of Ireland might hurt them, but I won't shed any tears that a major company's tax avoidance scheme was harmed.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Sweet, sweet schadenfreude
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Sweet, sweet schadenfreude
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Sweet, sweet schadenfreude
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Sweet, sweet schadenfreude
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Sweet, sweet schadenfreude
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Sweet, sweet schadenfreude
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Sweet, sweet schadenfreude
We're also talking about copyright parasites who are behind those politicians.
> They really, really don't like backing down or admitting to screwing up.
Yeah, it will be funny to watch them try to save face.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Sweet, sweet schadenfreude
Still, the Spanish government obviously has another choice - they can buy a datacenter full of servers, provision it with bandwidth, pay programmers to write code to scan every news site in the world and correlate news stories, and generally reproduce Google's news service at their own expense. Then pay the Spanish news orgs for the privilege, of course, because they aren't immune to the law either.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Say what?
Love that part. Protect how? By compelling Google not to withdraw?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Say what?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
So to see copyright fools like these perform the equivalent of Basil Fawlty going mental and hitting his car with a tree branch over and over in a serious attempt at getting it working again as a means of attacking the corporate giant is pathetic on all fronts.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
I continue to be amazed that so many people have such extremely misguided criticisms of Google while at the same time discounting or ignoring the many very legitimate criticisms that are available.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Nope, there is not a valid point here.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
Spain is saying "you have to pay to do this"
Google are saying "ok, then we won't do this"
Simple.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
If it makes the copyright squad look that more ridiculous by bitching over quotable paragraphs then all the more for it. Any impending stupid lawsuits may have even prompted calls to reverse the copyright policy.
I'm a fan of confrontation in that way.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re:
As I stated before, the AEDE crafted this law calculating based upon what happened in Germany. They did not calculate that Google would simply pull out from the market.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re:
This way they humiliate the politicians and the greedy publishers, while getting most of the public on their side and instead of the law silently being abolished after years of court, they can get a fast, very public, and very loud outcry.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Censorship
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
And I can't see how "picking and choosing some news to be shut off is censorship, but picking and choosing ALL news to be shut off isn't" is an argument.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
A result they deserve. I am sick and tired of everyone pissing and moaning about the people that caused this damage in the first place.
You are responsible for your government... if you don't like it, then move to another country or change it. It may not be easy and it may not be fair, but that is just the fucking way it is!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
Ima gonna subscribe my news service to all of the spanish news aggregators -> mo money, mo money, etc...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
Even that info is not being taken away, it's just not being provided in a convenient manner by one particular company. Stop trying to paint this with a censorship brush, it's nothing of the sort.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
WTF?
Then you simply don't know what the word means.
Censorship by definition is "picking winners and losers". Google isn't doing that if it decides to take it's ball and go home.
Google is no monopoly. ANY ONE can choose to provide an alternative. They will even quickly show up in a Google search. That's why most of this whining about Google is so absurd.
There is no vendor lock. There is no barrier to entry. Switching products is trivial for the end user.
The Spanish publishers could even create their own service if they wanted to.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
Anyways, so if Google chooses based on some criteria, whether popularity, if a reporter has made them mad, or if a news paper is paying them or not, they are censoring somebody. But if news agencies say,"we need agregators to keep us in business". And the government says,"agregators need to pay these fees" knowing that the fees are high enough to keep companies from becoming or continuing to be agregators, it's the government that is doing the censoring.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
But by doing so, all that information—including the stuff the editor thought was inferior—is left in the world to fend for itself. It has not been censored. The simple lack of promotion is not censorship. And no one—including the Spanish press—has an inalienable right to be promoted by Google or anyone else.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re:
That's not censorship, it's curating.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
Is this the fault of google or a law? I know a few people who closed business' or switched line of business because of law changes. No one blamed them, they blamed the new laws.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
They're not stopping anyone from communicating, they're just no longer providing a free way to make the communications easier, due to the legal problems posed by it.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
Though to be fair the censorship tendencies have always originated from the Leveson-esque "competitive" fees that were demanded from the newspapers.
I often wonder what it would take to make people realise how stupid the ownership of expression mentality is.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
He's a little biased with google hating. I guess I can understand -> I really hate apple and I will pump out snarky commments about their sucky company every once in a while.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
If you don't want Google to use your snippets and titles to link to the article, you don't have to let them. However, you also can't require that Google pay you for linking to your site.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
To which Google reacted by pulling Google News for Spain.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
If you're put in a position where it's unprofitable to keep a business functioning, how is closing that business "censorship"?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Which ones are those? Are you suggesting websites and advertisers have no choice but to use Google adwords & etc? I think you're quite mistaken.
No, there isn't. How can that be blamed on Google? Censorship?!? That's ridiculous.
Uh huh. That's just stupid (sorry). It's a corporation. It's job (policed by the FTC) is to make money for shareholders, pay taxes, and provide employment. That's all. It's not an NGO nor a charity of any kind. Google is not what defines the rules in any of that.
You got that right.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Their government gave them a chance to make their business big and what do they do? Whine about it.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
This was a bad law. They are starting to see that.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re:
So the end result will be - Google will be able to negotiate the subscription deal, but small players will not. And so the "Google tax", meant as a stick, will instead benefit Google.
Well done, Spain.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I said this earlier
Spain should form an inquisition to seek out and punish publishers who are secretly willing to publish content for free, which is against human rights.
Furthermore Spain can simply pass a law requiring Google to forever operate Google News in Spain, according to the laws of Spain.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: I said this earlier
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: I said this earlier
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: I said this earlier
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
"Given the dominant position of Google"
There, fixed that for you.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
*BANG*
"Damn it that hurt, lets use the shotgun instead"
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
So they are going to give a competitive advantage to only Google?
They need to just cut their losses, reverse the whole of this fundamentally flawed law, and chalk it up to a hard-learned lesson.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: So they are going to give a competitive advantage to only Google?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: So they are going to give a competitive advantage to only Google?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Alert the competition authorities!
Isn't Google leaving the market exactly the thing that should encourage and foster INCREASED competition in that market?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Alert the competition authorities!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Alert the competition authorities!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Alert the competition authorities!
This does however open similar markets such as subscription services and customer-side aggregators.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Alert the competition authorities!
About the only aggregator that might be safe is Twitter because you can barely cram a headline and a link in a tweet. And that is not even a guarantee with how the new law can be read
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
bwahahahahahahaha
deep breath
hahahhahahahahahahahahahahhahahaha
I cant stop laughing
you reap what you sow. reap the whirlwind!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Maybe I am a bit colored in my views...
I also really like when they can do things like this. Whether it is purely for their own gain or to make a point, they do set a precedent to oppose those who can and will make stupid laws based on their greed and sense of entitlement. Many of us know these stupid laws ought to bite these people in their own asses, but we so rarely get to see it happen, and it is always a joy to watch.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
It doesn't just gut the new law...
Actually, it wouldn't gut the new law - it would turn it completely on its head.
This was pitched as an anti-Google law - and it is. Giving Google the chance to opt-out (without repealing the law itself) would make it a pro-Google law (because everybody who's not Google would be forced to pay, while Google wouldn't.)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: It doesn't just gut the new law...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: It doesn't just gut the new law...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Not to worry...
http://revolution-news.com/spain-congress-passes-draconian-gag-law/
Just another day in the long line of: "stupid governments passing stupid laws"... what could go wrong?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
No shit Google has not taken a neutral stance. They aren't a neutral party in this case, they're one of the parties targeted by this law, and as a business, they take the stance that will be in their best interests. As such they've taken a stance opposed to the AEDE, which itself is not a neutral party.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Last I read about that was that a manager of Springer, Keese, who also seems to be spokesperson for VG Media said they were hoping for the EU namely Oettinger to make a law based on the spanish example.
In Germany they can't do much because there is a lawsuit between VG Media and Google at the patent and trademark office which will expedited next year according to a government spokesperson.
So the EU relies on Oettinger who is known for his competence...God help us all!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
So you passed a law
I would say that google pulls out of the country next, rather then be forced to pay to stay.
Next, world court gets involved, google is forced to leave the planet to continue to operate.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: So you passed a law
Might actually find intelligent life out there if Google tried, since all the intelligence of leaders is non existent at that point
:)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: So you passed a law
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Censorship is preventing someone from communicating an idea. Declining to provide a free soap box for them to pontificate from is NOT censorship.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
WTF?
Without this culling process, there can be no censorship. That's definition might work for governments that can enforce suppression of everyone everywhere but it makes no sense for a private company.
Giving up is simply giving up.
Labeling this as "censorship" is just feeding someone's mindless hate-on.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
the same thing needs to happen to the entertainment industries in the USA and UK as well as other places where the lobbying done has similarly led governments, politicians and courts to go down a road that leads to nothing except an industry relying on selling make believe to customers to exist, now gets them thrown into jail!! and that's a good business model??
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
This is asinine to think that anyone can force Google to keep that website running. It's like forcing an employer to stay in business when they are running at a loss just to prevent the unemployment rate from increasing.
If Google decides they ant to close down Google News in Spain, there really isn't anything anybody can do to stop them. Perhaps if Spain wasn't so gung-ho about passing such an extreme version of copyright law, then this wouldn't have happened in the first place.
Oh, I love the AEDE's response: AEDE requires the intervention of Spanish and community authorities, and competition authorities, to effectively protect the rights of citizens and companies.
Uh, pardon me if I'm incorrect in saying this, but didn't the AEDE lobby heavily for Spain's new draconian copyright law? Spain has already intervened with this new copyright law. Now that they tried to bluff Google, Google called their bluff and decided to pull out the Nuclear Option and effectively shut down Google News in Spain and are scrubbing all Spain news publishers from every international edition of Google News. Now, AEDE is claiming that Google's move will harm Spain's economy?
Excuse me, but Spain failed to learn the lessons that Germany was forced to learn? Come to think of it, Axel Springer is the same moron who tried to force Google's hand in Germany and he's also the same news media mogul who pushed for Spain's copyright law.
Well, Spain just shot itself in the foot. Google is shutting down its Google News services in Spain and is blacklisting Spain's news publishers from all of its Google News outlets. I guess they'll have to generate their own traffic now, without the help of Google News.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Talk about being asinine. That is very arrogant.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Google wasn't making any money off Google News and the news publishers benefited more from featuring those news publishers in its service, free of charge.
The fact is that news publishers in Spain thought they could bluff Google and ended up having their bluff called. When you're holding a pair of deuces, you don't try to bluff the other players into thinking you have a better hand because you're already betting on a losing hand.
Fact is, Google called Spain's bluff and just opted to shut down their news service in Spain. This law is nothing more than an attempt to penalize U.S.-based tech companies and it seems that the E.U., as a whole, has set its sights on Google, as there are a number of investigations and bills being considered to not only tax Google but also to break them up.
If Spain wants its news services back, then they can create their own news aggregators. Oh, wait. Spain's news aggregators would also be subject to this new copyright law.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
A Spanish and a German MEP.
The german one has a conflict of interest by working for the law firm that wrote the German Google Tax law.
What is worse is the cluelessness of the MEPs when it comes to search engines. For example demanding unbiased search results. Uh I want the results biased so that I don't have to go through all the pages to be sure that I find what are the most relevant results.
That said I'm waiting for the usual suspects to use this move by Google to cast it in a bad light with regard to the anti-trust probe that has been going on for the last few years (and to which it was found guilty). One of the complainers that got the probe started just happens to be the cartel of German publishers that got that Google Tax going in Germany.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
pass a new law making it compulsory for Google to keep its Google News service running at a loss
Oh please please make this happen. Google will then immediately withdraw all services to Spain, and the public backlash over YouTube (let alone Gmail etc) would be the best popcorn moment in the history of the internet ever .... for about 24 hours
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Spain needs another rights organization like we need another dictator.
The moron who stated that this law set a precedent is totally ignorant of how the law works. Precedents are only set by a court of law, where a decision by a court has such far reaching consequences that it affects other court cases in the future. LAWS do not set precedents, as they are constantly overturned all the time or repealed.
Seriously, learn how the freaking law works before you show people exactly how ignorant you really are.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
No profit
You make your otherwise well written articles look weak.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: No profit
Just because a company makes a profit does not mean everything it does is profitable, and you've made your otherwise average comment dumb.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: No profit
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: No profit
No? How about a company selling an item at a loss just to keep their presence in the market?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: No profit
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
A real opportunity here...
As long as a deal is reached before any real pain is felt, this issue will continue popping up. Google has an opportunity to take a real swing at the global copyright maximalists.
Google needs to withdraw as planned and not accept any last-minute deals; especially those that would exempt only Google while leaving the law in place to harm others. Google should tell Spain that they've proven themselves to be bad actors, suspend service as planned, and then review the situation in six months. At which time, if Spain has cleaned up it's laws and politics, Google will *consider* reinstating services.
Spain must feel the pain...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: A real opportunity here...
That would be silly. Google's got Spain by the cojones because Spanish users and businesses don't want to lose Google's services. Lose that and Google loses what leverage they have.
However, "Get rid of AEDE, and we'll suspend the suspension" might be a good way to go. If that works, go after all the other extortionists, er ... "licensing authorities" in Germany, Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, ...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
if you think that Google is censoring anything, I've got news for you. It's the media. I can't remember the last time I saw an investigative report done by the media. It's just become a propaganda machine for liberals.
Don't blame Google, blame the news media. After all, these are the same morons who keep removing the ability for their readers to comment on their articles or editorial decisions and they defend their actions, claiming that banning comments is a good thing for news publishers.
Hell, Huffington Post deletes comments all the time when someone posts a negative message about Democrats or question how their policies are destroying this country by not reigning in police harassment or in their unwillingness to repeal The Patriot Act, the NDAA and warrantless wiretapping.
When was the last time you read an article at a news publisher where they investigate the abuses of law enforcement or the out of control copyright policies in this country.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Already I need to tell a "conservative" what I just told another one yesterday.
You partisan hacks are moronic! Both sides are to blame. It's not liberals OR conservatives. It's liberals AND conservatives! They're two sides of the same coin.
Pathetic.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
If only more people understood that... +1
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
You must be new here. Most people just skip Mr. Morons posts. If you read too many, you will lose brain cells.
Mr. Moron may even reply to your post, or mine, but we will never know as he has not figured out [reply to this] yet.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: It's just become a propaganda machine for liberals.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Its almost as if they think Google sits between them and the end users and is modifying traffic to suit its evil plot.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
They are thinking fine. You just need to remember that many a lawyers job is to create work for themselves. How many hours of work have been billed over this already? What have they accomplished other than more work for themselves?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
So "stealing" copyrighted material has a positive impact then obviously.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
LOLS
http://www.computerworld.com/article/2859176/why-google-should-leave-europe.html
What a bunch of morons. Good luck on that. No wonder their unemployment rate is 25%. It's about to get bigger.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
HEY! I love this copyright law. Time to cash in when this law goes into effect because Spain websites are always using news snippets of my site, as well. :p
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Reach
Also "Spanish" is an overloaded word.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
AEDA is a collections agency
They want to force Google to stay in business so Google will be forced to pay them. Talk about a twisted sense of entitlement!!!!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
If Google decides it wants to shut down its website in Spain, there is absolutely nothing Spain can do to prevent that.
I find it ridiculous that AEDE wants to keep the new copyright law but also wants to force it to keep operating its website in Spain. That's like a government forcing you to remain in their country and to keep paying taxes, even though you want to leave the country and move elsewhere.
Spain has no jurisdiction over Google and if Google wants to shut down its services, there is nothing anyone can do about it.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Yet.
Just wait, odds are they'll try and have their cake and eat it too, by trying some insane scheme(if I had to guess, probably something along the lines about how Google is 'discriminating' against Spain by refusing to offer the same services in Spain as are available in other countries) to force Google to continue offering their news service in the country, and therefor pay out under the new law. Never underestimate the sense of entitlement shown by parasites like them.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
This is what happens when lawmakers are allowed to include civil forfeiture in their budgetary planning.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Info missing
In other words, what is important to consider is that It is really not sure News is operating at a loss and what AEDE may feel and definitely hints at is Google leaving money on the table because the company wants to punish them and make Spain an example so that other European countries don't pass similar laws.
So, this is a case of a quasi monopolistic player inflicting itself a jab because it doesn't want to deal with another round.
This, if true, could actually be severely punished by the European Comission, especially as Google has been trying its utmost not solving problems the EU has been rising.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
The Spanish Publishers are simply IDIOTS
Now that the consequences of Google leaving are clear, they should simply beg to destroy their new law.
Cry and beg you idiotic Spanish publishers. You created your bed so sleep in it. Isn't their enough food in Spain. Aren't their jobs in Spain?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
No problem
Google doesn't need to literally shut down Google News in Spain. Articles about Spanish news stories published online in other countries, especially Spanish speaking countries, like Mexico.
In fact, any Spanish paper wishing to maintain it's online presence can simply move all their online activities abroad, maybe that'll require spiting up the company or something.
And Spanish blogs aren't really effected by this law, right? Google can still index Spanish blogs, right? Just make that indexing faster so Spanish people looking for news see the Spanish blogs :
https://www.google.es/#q=Anarquismo+blog+Espa%C3%B1a
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarchism_in_Spain
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
If "forced" to provide links...
Problem solved.... Of course not, but it makes as much sense as what's being requested.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
How to make Google even more dominant.
So will probably be the outcome in Spain.
On a side note - the publishers in Spain and Germany just proved they are complete retards. Now - what is the point reading newspapers published by retards, I have no idea; maybe it is some kind of a obsessive-compulsive behaviour?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]