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Google News to shut down in Spain

googlepolicyeurope.blogspot.com

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Re: Google News to shut down in Spain

#211

Post by newuser88273 »

fpp wrote: post #196
kh_hk wrote: post #136

"the worse the better", I am happy about this. Articles about this have been going around Spanish news aggregators for a while. Now that there's an official statement from Google, message will finally go around the world showing what kind of stupid laws the Spanish government is passing around with the influence of the powerful copyright lobbies. Now, about the recent Spanish Intellectual Property reform. The particu…

Similar (not to that extreme) just happened in Germany during the last 12-24 months. The conservative party massively expanded the copyright of publishers (German legislation: Leistungsschutzrecht - English http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancillary_copyright_for_press_p... ) and some of the larger publishers then started to demand payments from Google for including snippets in its news services. Google reacted by removi…

So it seems the problem with the German law was that they created a basic prisoner's dilemma kind of situation. Publishers who tried to get some compensation from Google for appropriating the fruits of their labor were thwarted by defection from those who didn't. It seems the Spanish law was drafted in recognition of this game theoretic problem. If traffic drops for Spanish publishers turn out to remain well below those seen by the Germans, this could become a model for other countries.

Re: Google News to shut down in Spain

#212

Post by mcv »

sounds wrote: post #41
dyadic wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are two sides to the scourge. WRT the BBC, they produce quality content, partly funded by us Brits and partly funded by exporting the content to other countries. With the internet they have limited choices: * Keep things off the internet and disappoint everyone * Put things on the global internet and lose export value * Put things on the internet but geolocate to the UK and retain export value Clearly for them,…

So your dilemma could be a false dichotomy if (and I realize it's a big if): * BBC puts things on the global internet * Global users can discover it more readily * BBC becomes well-known as a provider of quality content * Demand for BBC content increases because of the online content already available * BBC can charge more for future content (which it can export first to high-profit-margin channels, then publish onli…

The BBC was already widely known as a producer of quality content before the internet became widely known.

Re: Google News to shut down in Spain

#213

Post by junto »

pjc50 wrote: post #138
sounds wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So your dilemma could be a false dichotomy if (and I realize it's a big if): * BBC puts things on the global internet * Global users can discover it more readily * BBC becomes well-known as a provider of quality content * Demand for BBC content increases because of the online content already available * BBC can charge more for future content (which it can export first to high-profit-margin channels, then publish onli…

BBC iPlayer publishes online immediately. Making that globally available would definitely impact ability to sell. An alternative would be allowing people to log in with a TV license number.

BBC iPlayer Global is already available worldwide via a subscription. It started several years ago.

https://itunes.apple.com/ie/app/bbc-iplayer-global/id4491306...

Re: Google News to shut down in Spain

#214

Post by mcv »

ddebernardy wrote: post #125
adventured wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an American I watch Europe pretty closely, and I've seen some things that are worrisome such as increasing amounts of fascism (anti-freedom / anti-privacy)... but, things seem to be getting pretty freaky almost everywhere, freedom seems to be on the retreat globally. For Spain, speaking sociologically, how long can an advanced country have 30%-35% real unemployment, before there are severely destabilizing effects…

> As an American I watch Europe pretty closely, and I've seen some things that are worrisome such as increasing amounts of fascism (anti-freedom / anti-privacy)... As a European who watches the US, I hope the irony of your statement has not escaped you. The NSA, the Can-Spam act, the TSA, Guantanamo Bay, how Obama gave a kill order on a US citizen without due process, how the hardline christian right and hardline lib…

> As a European who watches the US, I hope the irony of your statement has not escaped you.

To be fair, he did say freedom seems to be on the retreat globally. The US and the EU are both guilty of this, though I'd argue that torture and illegal detention are a bit worse in that respect than banning newspapers from the internet (or maybe not, now that I've formulated it like that).

The EU does have the edge that these movements away from freedom are somewhat balanced by other movements towards guaranteeing freedom (like the user data protection directive).

Re: Google News to shut down in Spain

#215

Post by fizgig »

SiVal wrote: post #183
carlesfe wrote: post #149

I wrote a bit about this in July, when the law was passed, if you want an opinion from a Spaniard: http://cfenollosa.com/blog/spanish-media-just-shot-themselve... Let's summarize what is happening here: Big media editors AEDE, most of which pro-government, in collusion with the corrupt Spanish politicians have managed a masterstroke which they think will: 1. Get them free money 2. Destroy the discoverability of small…

According to the article: This new legislation requires every Spanish publication to charge services like Google News for showing even the smallest snippet from their publications, whether they want to or not. This sounds as though it won't matter if Spanish news aggregators move abroad, because the law applies to the Spanish news sources themselves, not the aggregator. Unless I'm misunderstanding (and maybe I am, so…

Sounds like compulsory licencing. Is a pricing schedule spelled out, demanding a minimum charge? Cannot these small shops simply charge Google a token, blanket licence for all their content for, say, $1 and side-step these legislative shenanigans?

Re: Google News to shut down in Spain

#216

Post by mcv »

walshemj wrote: post #175
Thimothy wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, that's probably what is going to happen. Google news will will continue operating, just without the spanish sources. Probably at some point some guy in some country without strong ties to spain (Probably not south america) is going to wise up, make some kind of spanish-content-only Reddit from there, and earn a shitton of money from the ads.

Or a Spanish language news paper in the states starts doing an international section.

International? I'd make a Swiss site with Spanish news in Spanish for Spanish expats in Switzerland. Totally legitimate, but it's probably going to be very popular with people in Spain looking for national news online.

Re: Google News to shut down in Spain

#217

Post by mcv »

abennobashi wrote: post #33

Good for Google. Greedy, thieving socialist governments have no place in the free world. This new Spanish law stinks of "Anti Dog eat Dog" legislation. Downvote me to hell, but Who is John Galt?

I guess People's Party may sound socialist, but they're Spain's conservative party.

Re: Google News to shut down in Spain

#218

Post by mcv »

sparkzilla wrote: post #155
eru wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can try to fork Wikipedia. The content is all available, all you need is a bunch of servers; then you can convince the contributors to come over.

I don't think it is possible to make "the next Wikipedia" from a fork. It's easier and cheaper to remake the data so that it works right from the get go. Best to start fresh. If the data is better then the contributors will come over anyway.

I think you missed his point about the servers.

Re: Google News to shut down in Spain

#219

Post by jasonisalive »

muyuu wrote: post #204
mcv wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is exactly the market opportunity I'm seeing here: news sites for Spanish news that are based outside Spain. Reporting on issues abroad is still possible, and they may even be able to hire freelancers based in Spain. Or to put it another way: with no way to find Spanish news sites online, Spaniards would become entirely dependent on foreign news sites, which creates an incentive for foreign sites to focus more o…

The main media in Spain will start hosting sites abroad to bypass this law. This law is basically a way to hinder smaller media more than collecting money from Google, and in this respect I guess it will work.

It's always the small fish who suffer the most from socialist policies. Only large organisations can justify the resources to out-maneuever punitive legislation.

It's a shame that this irony isn't more widely understood.

Re: Google News to shut down in Spain

#220

Post by mobiplayer »

carlesfe wrote: post #149

I wrote a bit about this in July, when the law was passed, if you want an opinion from a Spaniard: http://cfenollosa.com/blog/spanish-media-just-shot-themselve... Let's summarize what is happening here: Big media editors AEDE, most of which pro-government, in collusion with the corrupt Spanish politicians have managed a masterstroke which they think will: 1. Get them free money 2. Destroy the discoverability of small…

Please someone print this and staple it on the forehead of every single person behind this non-sense.
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