The German coalition, led by recently re-elected Chancellor Angela Merkel, has pledged to try to introduce a form of copyright legislation to help protect the content produced by journalists online, the New York Times is reporting.

The aim is to give German publishers a fighting chance when coming up against Internet giants such as Google, whom they accuse of exploiting content without sharing the profits.

Whilst the document laying out its policies says: "the Internet cannot be a copyright-free zone," the coalition does support a more aggressive approach to helping resolve the issues currently faced by the news media.

Axel Springer, owner of the newspapers Bild and Die Welt, welcomed the plan and said it could be employed to help build new online business models.

German publishers have previously outright refused any financial handouts, unlike news organisations in France and other parts of Europe. In January, French President Nicolas Sarkozy outlined a 600€ million package to bail out newspapers over the next three years. State intervention in the media is viewed with greater suspicion in Germany, however, bringing memories of a Nazi-controlled press during the Third Reich, back to mind.

Details about how the government will go about implementing the plan have not yet been released, though publishing executives speculated that it could revolve around a a licensing system whereby agencies would have to pay for any content commericially reproduced online. That might include Web sites that post articles from other sources, assuming they sell advertising. A new organization, modeled on the music and book industries' royalty collection societies, could be created to gather and distribute the fees, publishing executives added.

Under this plan, non-commercial users of the material would not be required to obtain a licence, though opponents worry that the distinction between commercial and private use is not easy to define. Many bloggers, for example, sell advertising and have commercial ambitions, whilst many others blog for the fun of it. Determining who would pay will not be easy to regulate.

Another idea currently in place in France and Britain, has already been scrapped. Cutting of Internet access for recurring copyright offenders, is not an option for the German coalition, who instead called for greater cooperation between rights holders and Internet service providers to try to solve the problem.

Critics of the plan have said that it undermines the open nature of the Internet. The proposal "has no value for our society," said Markus Beckedahl, a blogger based in Berlin and advocate of a free Internet. "It only has value for publishers who see a threat from the democratization of the media, he told the Times. "This debate is happening only because German publishers have failed to build successful business models on the Internet.

Publishers responded by saying they understood that they were working in a different realm online, but that they are tired of watching others make money from their content. "This is simply one part of the media's effort to survive in a new kind of economy," said Stefan Söder, a lawyer for Hubert Burda Media, a magazine publisher based in Munich. "Obviously everyone wants access to free and unlimited information, but if everyone has that, then there is no way to pay for the production of it."

A specific date as to when the legislation might be introduced remains undecided, with negotiations still taking place and some journalists against the proposal altogether.

The need to protect content produced online, has been most heavily advocated by the Associated Press. Chief executive, Tom Curley has repeatedly said that publishers need to take control of their content and AP itself has developed a method of tracking where and when its content is being used by adding a 'beacon' to its hnews microformat.

That Merkel's coalition plans to get on board and help German publishers find solutions to online copyright piracy could be a major step forward in helping to rejuvenate an industry that has been seriously injured by the gratis nature of the Internet.

Source: New York Times