European media companies still want money from Google

[EditorialGuy]

Axel Springer and other European publishers are spending big bucks (or big euros) on lobbying in the hope of getting money from Google, according to The New York Times. The publishers want Google to cough up cash whenever it links to their content:

“The argument is simple enough: Publishers want money from Google,” said Till Kreutzer, a German lawyer who has campaigned against these new copyright proposals. “Many European politicians are open to listening to that type of proposal.”

and:

“Europe’s publishers are well-organized, well-connected and a really powerful lobby,” said Stefan Heumann, director of the European digital agenda program at the New Responsibility Foundation, a Berlin-based research organization. “Many of them are struggling to grasp the realities of the new digital world.”

The story is at:

[nytimes.com...]

[tangor]

The odd chuckle is that while the EU market for G is sizable, it would make more sense to disconnect these sharks rather than pay them a euro. G doesn't need them, whereas the opposite is true. Last time I looked G was 90-ish% of the EU market.

[MrSavage]

Money for links? How about money for posting your answer from your website? If a link is $1 then the actual content usage should be worth $100. That's per view or course...

[tangor]

This conversation keeps coming up, time and again, and there's no solution in sight.

A search engine is one thing.
A publisher is another.

Does the search engine steal from the publisher?
Does the publisher have no hits without a search engine?

And instead of this being "us against them" it has through lobbying, become a gubermint (sic) against one of them for the other them, and the gubermint will take all in the final, if it goes that far.

G can solve this problem real quick. Those in the suit can be assured their sites will no longer be displayed in the search engine. Fine (as in end), done, over with.

Sadly, those in the suit will be quoted by others not so picky (or greedy) or thin-skinned, thus such reports will still show up, but in other country's content.

Above is devils advocate. Reality is this will not go away as many webmasters world wide (including more than a few here at WW) also agree that G is getting too much benefit of their copyrighted content in their serps, with little return to them for that "listing".

Also devils advocate.

Me? Not sure where this will go, nor sure if there is enough web-wide rancor at G to fuel such investigation. Why? I know way too many webmasters tickled pink with what they get from G.

Also devils advocate.

It will be interesting to see how this shakes out.