Google warns Germany of potential internet news blackout
Following news last week from France, Germany is the latest European country to discuss letting newspaper publishers charge internet search engines for displaying links to their articles
The German parliament are to discuss the ‘ancillary copyright bill’ that will allow newspaper and magazine publishers the right to stop search engines and news aggregators from linking to their web pages unless they pay for the right.
The idea of internet sites to share revenue they earn from selling advertising space alongside listings of newspaper and magazine articles is also rumoured to be under consideration in Italy.
In a parallel example, the German songwriters’ rights society has already been in a long fight with YouTube over the size of royalties that should be paid to songwriters.
Google, not surprisingly, is against the proposals and warns of an internet news blackout. The search engine company said: “The law would hit every internet user in the country as searching for and finding information will be severely disrupted. This kind of interference with the internet is not what the system is about and is unprecedented globally.”
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