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Google News is shutting down purchased magazine content, offering refunds

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Re: Google News is shutting down purchased magazine content, offering refunds

#32

Much like the phrase around crypto about "not your keys? not your crypto" goes, similar applies to all digital things: Not your local content? not your content" Things like Kindle Unlimited (which at least say they're subscriptions to content access) digital streaming and so many other services that let you "buy" things that you don't keep on your own device in your own chosen format are all bullshit waiting to happe…

I've been burned too many times by streaming services:

1. Removing entire series/movies

2. Removing specific episodes in a series

3. Making changes to content (e.g. Scrubs and its soundtrack)

4. Only having the inferior quality version of some content

5. And finally, to a lesser extent, just having bad metadata (Netflix in particular has listed episodes out of order)

I'm becoming more and more envious of those YouTubers with the wall of physical blurays and games as their backdrop.

Re: Google News is shutting down purchased magazine content, offering refunds

#33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hahaha... laughed so hard... even for Google this is pretty comical. > The company has been downsizing in recent months to reckon with slowing growth and uncertain economic conditions. What happened to becoming better through overcoming problems? "Slowing growth" and "Uncertain economic conditions" means now "Close down immediately". > The cuts at Google News come as big online platforms are pressured to provide the…

Nobody should be expecting accurate information on either conflict. Sometimes accurate information is hard to come by. I'm not sure the problem is that platforms are being "pressured to provide the public with accurate information", though. I would guess there's far more pressure to provide information that favors certain viewpoints, whether that information is accurate or not.

maybe not accurate, but it has to be true.

Re: Google News is shutting down purchased magazine content, offering refunds

#34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think people should expect accurate information. Kinda the same as with justice. We know justice is served by people in nice togas and juries of peers who are really a nice name for your neighbours. And yet we still demand and hopefully will continue to demand justice, even if those people make mistakes or sometimes behave fraudulently. The problem with Israeli-Hamas conflict isn't that the accurate information isn…

> The problem with Israeli-Hamas conflict isn't that the accurate information isn't available. > It is that both sides of the conflict decided to use misinformation to bolster their media presence and their right to defend themselves. How can these two claims be compatible with each other? The first says that accurate information is available. The second says that it isn't.

[flagged]

Re: Google News is shutting down purchased magazine content, offering refunds

#35
Thanks for updating the title and adding a link @dang.

Unfortunately, I think the linked article's title is slightly misleading. Google is only offering refunds for some unknown portion of purchased content.

"Google says that some magazines will be refund-eligible because they contain interactive elements that cannot be downloaded and saved for future access."

I don't know what portion of magazine subscription content is refund-eligible, but I suspect it is very small. The current title implies that subscribers will be made whole, which is unlikely IMO.

Re: Google News is shutting down purchased magazine content, offering refunds

#36
post #8

I wonder if this is just due to something internal at Google or if there has been some more global change that has made them uninterested in continuing this? Normally I'd guess the former given Google's legendary propensity for getting rid of services, but a couple months ago Amazon did something similar [1] which makes me wonder if the two are connected somehow: > Effective September 4, 2023, Amazon is no longer sel…

I think it's more that print magazines aren't really a thing anymore. Yes, they exist, but if you have a computer you're far more likely to consume publishers' content by going to their site and either generating advertising revenue for them as a free user or subscribing digitally, which gives you (and them) much more flexibility in the types of content you can consume and they can create & share.

The same has been happening in the newspaper industry the past decade.

Re: Google News is shutting down purchased magazine content, offering refunds

#37

Much like the phrase around crypto about "not your keys? not your crypto" goes, similar applies to all digital things: Not your local content? not your content" Things like Kindle Unlimited (which at least say they're subscriptions to content access) digital streaming and so many other services that let you "buy" things that you don't keep on your own device in your own chosen format are all bullshit waiting to happe…

I've been burned too many times by streaming services: 1. Removing entire series/movies 2. Removing specific episodes in a series 3. Making changes to content (e.g. Scrubs and its soundtrack) 4. Only having the inferior quality version of some content 5. And finally, to a lesser extent, just having bad metadata (Netflix in particular has listed episodes out of order) I'm becoming more and more envious of those YouTub…

>I'm becoming more and more envious of those YouTubers with the wall of physical blurays and games as their backdrop.

Going on a tangent here but your line reminded me. It's also a damn good idea to download any favorite YouTube videos for local storage and favorite YT videos with music at least as MP3 files. As with all things streaming, YouTube is constantly erasing all kinds of often excellent content, some of it to never be replaced because its creators stopped caring but left it up. Oops.

Re: Google News is shutting down purchased magazine content, offering refunds

#38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's easier to list the reasons not to pirate.

1. Piracy is theft.

Piracy, of actual -tangible- goods, is theft.

Piracy of digital content is -literal- copying. The original item is not modified or changed. Copying is not theft.

The politicians, media journalists, and corporations spent enough monies to brainwash children into believing copying is theft. It isn't.

Never was. Never is.

Re: Google News is shutting down purchased magazine content, offering refunds

#39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody should be expecting accurate information on either conflict. Sometimes accurate information is hard to come by. I'm not sure the problem is that platforms are being "pressured to provide the public with accurate information", though. I would guess there's far more pressure to provide information that favors certain viewpoints, whether that information is accurate or not.

I think people should expect accurate information. Kinda the same as with justice. We know justice is served by people in nice togas and juries of peers who are really a nice name for your neighbours. And yet we still demand and hopefully will continue to demand justice, even if those people make mistakes or sometimes behave fraudulently. The problem with Israeli-Hamas conflict isn't that the accurate information isn…

> If you don't like "trumpism", you have to side with "radical left". If you don't like "radical left", you have to side with "trumpism"

This strikes me as incorrect. There isn't really much "radical left" in the US, Biden himself is a centrist. I take your overall point regarding accuracy of information, and I think the comments re: "radical left" are an example of the inaccuracy we see in US media. "Radical centrism", maybe.

Re: Google News is shutting down purchased magazine content, offering refunds

#40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think people should expect accurate information. Kinda the same as with justice. We know justice is served by people in nice togas and juries of peers who are really a nice name for your neighbours. And yet we still demand and hopefully will continue to demand justice, even if those people make mistakes or sometimes behave fraudulently. The problem with Israeli-Hamas conflict isn't that the accurate information isn…

> The problem with Israeli-Hamas conflict isn't that the accurate information isn't available. > It is that both sides of the conflict decided to use misinformation to bolster their media presence and their right to defend themselves. How can these two claims be compatible with each other? The first says that accurate information is available. The second says that it isn't.

Accurate information is available.

Figuring out which of the many, many bits of information we're bombarded with are accurate is frequently tough.

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