janethuggard - 12:17 am on Aug 13, 2005 (gmt 0)

Be careful what you wish for, you may actually get it. I hear constant complaining in the forum by webmasters who don't want their content 'stolen' by Google, for the benefit of Google.

Stop to think if this copyright rule doesn't comes out ultimately in Google's favor. You have to opt in. Whenever you have to opt in with a major search engine, you are going to PAY for it. That is fact.

How many little dogs in this forum will be crushed when Google starts to charge for inclusion, because of the overhead involved with processing opt-ins?

Multiply that out people, because what is good for Google, will be good for ALL engines. Do you really want to wake up one day to a notice that says all search engines have to have an opt-in, and find out every engine has a hefty annual fee? This is where this is headed if it continues. Count on it. The cost of business will skyrocket, and while the big boys can dole it out, the little dogs will to curl up in a corner and lick their wounds, before dishing out several thousand dollars a year, to be listed in every search engine.

And, the only thing keeping prices relatively low on paid submisssion now, like the $299 Yahoo directory, is the fact that the BIG DOG is still free. When the Big Dog begins to charge a fee, watch prices sky rocket.

And... forget the 'allow' statement in your code. Copyright will require hand submission, and agreement to TOS in order to be legal. They need documentation on their server, otherwise, what is to keep you from pulling the code, claim that you never gave them permission and they experienced a 'glitch' that robbed you of your rights, and then sue them?

HTML language on a page won't cut it. You want protection? Dear heaven, you might just get a truckload of legal mubble jumble to protect your copyright, and pay through the nose for it. Is that really what you want? No, of course not. What you want is your cake and eat it too. Give me what I want, when I want, and I don't want to pay a thin dime for it. Watch the threads fill-up with squeelers when they have to pay for ALL their traffic.

It could be the end to the free traffic so many in this forum are so very proud of. You want to think about who you are cheering for in this fight. You might be cutting off your nose to spite your face.

After all... it was FREE search traffic that made each and everyone of you what you are today. Nobody came to the web with all their traffic in hat. Everyone of you relied, initially, on some amout of free traffic, to let people know where you were. While you may not need much of it now, you sure loved it when you were at square one. Now, you want to bite the hands that fed you?

Give me a break.