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Bill C-18: Google to remove news links in Canada over online news law

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Re: Bill C-18: Google to remove news links in Canada over online news law

#451

Post by nearbuy »

raydev wrote: post #393
donmcronald wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Canadian media has always enjoyed some protectionism from the government. It's old, entrenched players wanting, and getting, something for nothing. The people that control our media and telecommunications in Canada could fit in a compact car. This doesn't have anything to do with the average person. It's all business and lobbying.

But does anyone actually win from this? Has someone behind C-18 run the numbers and found a way that this would increase revenue for Canadian media companies? I don't see how Meta and Google weren't completely predictable, and I don't see how Canadian media benefits from getting shut out. I am so confused.

In Australia, similar laws were implemented and Google and Meta eventually made deals to pay a number of media companies for links. I assume that's the outcome the government is hoping for.

Not sure what will happen this time.

Re: Bill C-18: Google to remove news links in Canada over online news law

#452

Post by matheusmoreira »

realusername wrote: post #448
matheusmoreira wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Money. They will remain here as long as there's still profit to be made. Would be awesome if they had enough balls to tell the brazilian government to go to hell but they just aren't gonna do that as long as they're making money.

This is the same as increasing taxes then, except that instead of the taxes going to the government to vote for the redistribution, they go straight to news agencies bypassing the government. When viewed with this angle, the next question is why news agencies get their own dedicated taxes and nobody else?

Because they're Lula's propaganda machine. Same reason he wants the internet censored with his fake news nonsense.

Re: Bill C-18: Google to remove news links in Canada over online news law

#453

Post by realusername »

matheusmoreira wrote: post #452
realusername wrote: post #448

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the same as increasing taxes then, except that instead of the taxes going to the government to vote for the redistribution, they go straight to news agencies bypassing the government. When viewed with this angle, the next question is why news agencies get their own dedicated taxes and nobody else?

Because they're Lula's propaganda machine. Same reason he wants the internet censored with his fake news nonsense.

That's also what I'm getting from that, making it proportional to the views make it sure that independent investigation journalists won't get any of it.

Re: Bill C-18: Google to remove news links in Canada over online news law

#454

Post by suddenexample »

sysstemlord wrote: post #450
whitewingjek wrote: post #13

The eff had an interesting article[1] about this issue (and others) as well as some alternative ways solve the issue, not that I agree with all of them. Ultimately, this is the wrong approach. The internet should be "open," and people or companies should be free to link to whatever they want without penalty. [1] https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/04/saving-news-big-tech

But what does it mean exactly to be open? Are you allowed to monetize via ads on the work of others or no?

That makes it sound like ad companies are invading the websites of news companies who are resisting.

These news organizations want to have their cake and eat it too. They rely on these platforms for traffic. Now they also want to be paid for getting that traffic. That's not how this works.

Re: Bill C-18: Google to remove news links in Canada over online news law

#456

Post by [deleted] »

AYBABTME wrote: post #430
robertlagrant wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not a utility. Search might be, and the state is welcome to start its own search engine and run it as a utility, paying zero innovation wages as utilities do.

Google the search engine is critical internet infrastructure, and innovation into it is stagnant from a user's perspective.

[deleted]

Re: Bill C-18: Google to remove news links in Canada over online news law

#457

Post by robertlagrant »

AYBABTME wrote: post #430
robertlagrant wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not a utility. Search might be, and the state is welcome to start its own search engine and run it as a utility, paying zero innovation wages as utilities do.

Google the search engine is critical internet infrastructure, and innovation into it is stagnant from a user's perspective.

It is not internet infrastructure at all. It's a consumer tool, potentially about to be replaced by AI.

Another thing about utilities: water or electricity are fungible goods, easily measured. Search is rather trickier to decide what a good outcome is, and the thought of paying for politicians and administrators to debate search rank orders for eternity seems a terrible use of money.

Finally, things like water supply have been around for tens of thousands of years. Thinking search hasn't done so much in the last 10 maybe be a little short term! Thinking it will be around in the long term at all, and thus worth converting may also be a little short term.

Re: Bill C-18: Google to remove news links in Canada over online news law

#458

Post by omginternets »

2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #254
whitewingjek wrote: post #13

The eff had an interesting article[1] about this issue (and others) as well as some alternative ways solve the issue, not that I agree with all of them. Ultimately, this is the wrong approach. The internet should be "open," and people or companies should be free to link to whatever they want without penalty. [1] https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/04/saving-news-big-tech

> The internet should be "open," Which RFC is that?

RFCs are technical specs. This is a question of ethics.

Re: Bill C-18: Google to remove news links in Canada over online news law

#459

Post by AmericanChopper »

pyrale wrote: post #64
paddw wrote: post #36

Many people who would otherwise be appalled at laws like this seem to want to rationalize this because its specifically targeting Google and Meta. Sometimes taking the simple view is correct: It's a bad thing to prevent sites from linking to one another. It's a bad thing to interfere with the ability to access information on the Internet for reasons of nationalist politics.

> Many people who would otherwise be appalled at laws like this seem to want to rationalize this because its specifically targeting Google and Meta. It's not just a matter of the targeted companies being Google and Meta, even though these two especially deserve it. It's the simple realization that good journalism requires good money, and that the current balance between news organizations and internet brokers isn't u…

> It's the simple realization that good journalism requires good money

If this were about good journalism then the law wouldn’t be necessary at all. The revenue these companies are generating from the journalism content is from displaying a headline. The whole point of the law is that the actual content of these articles is so utterly worthless, that users can’t even be bothered clicking on it. A substantial portion of those users derive all of the limited value that they believe it has by reading the headline alone. There is no legislative solution to that problem. This is law is only a solution to the problem of useless businesses being selected out of the market by their consumers.

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