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Spain's 'Google tax'

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Re: Spain's 'Google tax'

#3

More details: https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=de&tl=en&hl=en&ie=... More opinion: http://globalvoicesonline.org/2014/07/26/spanish-congress-co... Maybe someone who speaks Spanish could provide a more detailed article? The English-language web appears to be shallow this time.

It's not about linking, it's about re-posting titles and excerpts of news, like Google News does (did?)

Re: Spain's 'Google tax'

#6
From what I understand, Twitter only posts content from the linked site (expanded tweets) if the site is a partner or (twitter cards) if the site actively includes code for Twitter. Anything you can squeeze into 140 characters is surely protected as a (very) limited quote.

Which makes me question this article. Did they really pass a law requiring payment for quoting small parts of an article? Seems unlikely. Paying for merely linking to a site would be even crazier.

Re: Spain's 'Google tax'

#7

From what I understand, Twitter only posts content from the linked site (expanded tweets) if the site is a partner or (twitter cards) if the site actively includes code for Twitter. Anything you can squeeze into 140 characters is surely protected as a (very) limited quote. Which makes me question this article. Did they really pass a law requiring payment for quoting small parts of an article? Seems unlikely. Paying f…

The Heise article says so - arbitrarily small citations fall under this law, and it includes hyperlinks. A link is enough. The fine can be up to € 300k or six years in prison. The Spanish education minister hails this as a pioneering effort designed to be followed up by the EU at large.

Re: Spain's 'Google tax'

#8

When they are already in such bad economic shape, why are the Spaniards so eager to push themselves into further irrelevance?

Well, you have to remember that Spanish politics is completely fucked up. American politics are only recently beginning to come close, to add a sense of scale. Doesn't help that they have legal cruft dating back to the medieval ages, but that's separate.

Re: Spain's 'Google tax'

#9
post #7

From what I understand, Twitter only posts content from the linked site (expanded tweets) if the site is a partner or (twitter cards) if the site actively includes code for Twitter. Anything you can squeeze into 140 characters is surely protected as a (very) limited quote. Which makes me question this article. Did they really pass a law requiring payment for quoting small parts of an article? Seems unlikely. Paying f…

The Heise article says so - arbitrarily small citations fall under this law, and it includes hyperlinks. A link is enough. The fine can be up to € 300k or six years in prison. The Spanish education minister hails this as a pioneering effort designed to be followed up by the EU at large.

> arbitrarily small citations fall under this law, and it includes hyperlinks

This will do wonders for the SEO of these newspapers, not to mention their presence at all in the discourse.

Re: Spain's 'Google tax'

#10

When they are already in such bad economic shape, why are the Spaniards so eager to push themselves into further irrelevance?

Because they have been led to believe other EU countries will follow suit, which is not entirely outside of the realm of possibility. Personally I also suspect that there is extensive "sponsoring" by the content industry going on. They see Spain is vulnerable, so they probably see it as a cheap foot in the door for the entire EU.

Living in Germany myself, the cynic in me can already envision the German adaptation of this, which would include the same definition of the crime, but they would allow arbitrary lawyers to send cost notices of, say, €10k to private individuals and owners of small websites. The €300k will then only be enforced if you don't pay up. While that is going on, large companies will do backroom deals so they can carry on like before.

These laws are never designed to stop Google, Twitter, or Facebook. They'll be just fine, as long as they pay enough behind the scenes. It's always about the little guys.

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