Spanish newspapers ask the government to bring back Google News

[Himanshu Arora]

Just a few days after Google announced that it would discontinue Google News in Spain, the Association of Editors of Spanish Dailies (AEDE), a group that represents the country's news industry, has said that it wants the Spanish government and EU competition authorities to stop the search giant from doing so.

The AEDE’s move is ironic given the fact that it is the main media lobby behind the new Intellectual Property Law. However, it seems that the association has realised the damage that the closure of Google News would wreak on the Spanish newspaper industry.

It was “not just the closure of another service given its dominant market position,” said AEDE in a statement, adding that Google’s decision “will undoubtedly have a negative impact on citizens and Spanish businesses.” The association is now demanding the intervention of Spanish as well as EU competition authorities, to effectively “protect the rights of citizens and companies.”

When asked to comment on the matter, a spokeswoman for AEDE said that the association has always been open to negotiations with Google, but the California-based company “has not taken a neutral stance.” Acknowledging that Google is free to close its business, she said, “but one thing is the closure of Google News and quite another the positioning in the general index.”

Google’s decision to close its Google News offering in Spain came in the wake of the new copyright law that allows publishers in the country to charge online news aggregation services for showing even the smallest snippet from their publications -- failure in doing so could attract fines up to €600,000 ($750,000). Justifying the move, Google had stated that since the computer-generated news site itself makes no money and is ad-free, the suggested approach would not be sustainable.

Earlier, Germany had passed a similar law, following which Google removed news publishers from its service, which in turn resulted in a significant drop in traffic to local news websites, forcing publishers to reach an agreement with the company.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/59159-spanish-newspapers-ask-government-bring-back-google-news.html

 

[MeladT]

Just like I said in the last post about this......Spain are desperate......

 

[davislane1]

This is a rather transparent play:

1. Pass regulation requiring services to compensate outlets for listings.
2. Go to the EU and Spanish gov't to prevent predicable termination of listings.
3. Money.

Of course Google isn't going to adopt a neutral stance. The expression, "don't try to play a player," comes immediately to mind.

 

[BlueDrake]

What's confusing is why adopt such a policy, knowing the traffic will end up in a downturn as a result? You're playing games with a large company, who helps boost traffic for free without ads. We get you're looking for quick cash, but at the expense of what exactly?

This is all just a waste of time because really, things will happen behind closed doors one way or another. Just to get around this silly law because traffic will be lower, and less revenue will be coming in as a result. Google makes nothing since there's no ads, it's basically a closing of doors to isolate things. Nobody is benefiting from this new law, that I can see at least without disrupting freedom of news.

Someone makes an article, another uses said article to point out issues, then said individual / organization is fined for usage. Nobody said anyone "WILL" be fined but really, it leaves the doors open to such actions. Which is just more abuse of powers, all for the sake of those wishing to use some news snippets.

 

[Nima304]

Spain was undoubtedly hoping that Google would pay the fines, and is now backtracking when Google decided to close up shop. If I were Google and I'd already started plans to cease operations, I'd go through with them. Let the rest of the world see what happens when it tries to strongarm companies through stupid legislation.

 

[RustyTech]

This is not directly aimed at the news outlets:
Am I just imagining this or are CEOs/Owers/and people of authority in general, are becoming more stupid (in the full meaning of the word) with each passing year!?? Sometimes I just think these people (mentioned above) just can't think past their nose! I know some people will say "can't think past their wallet", but I'm not sure that would be accurate since if they even though of their wallet, they would make decisions that wouldn't cut their umbilical cord.

/rant


I feel much better now, thank you!

 

[Experimentongod]

I'm Spanish and I think this whole debacle is just stupid. Good for Google.

 

[Guest]

1) Collaborate with EU to draft a law that forces Google to pay you for posting your content.

2) Google then closes up the business that posts your content

3) Blame Google

3) Cry to EU that Google closed up their news site over the law that you had collaborated with the EU.

4) Blame Google again

5) Use an excuse to the EU that Google closing up there news business will hurt businesses and consumers

6) Collaborate with the EU to force Google to open their news site business so that the EU can force Google to pay the newspapers.

 

[Guest]

"Am I just imagining this or are CEOs/Owers/and people of authority in general, are becoming more stupid (in the full meaning of the word) with each passing year!?? Sometimes I just think these people (mentioned above) just can't think past their nose! I know some people will say "can't think past their wallet", but I'm not sure that would be accurate since if they even though of their wallet, they would make decisions that wouldn't cut their umbilical cord."

Maybe, but I'd bet if a few people are about to make a pretty penny or benefit in some way with those laws they would probably rather people just think they made a stupid decision by mistake rather than purposefully.

 

[Hexic]

Forcing a private company to stay open, after lobbying in such a way that loses said company money for staying open.

Sounds like the EU.

 

[cliffordcooley]

If there is a demand for it, someone will step in and pick up the slack. It doesn't have to be Google.