European Publishers Council: Google cannot keep poaching our content

Posted by Dominique Lewis Tuohy on December 7, 2005 at 1:04 PM

The head of The European Publishers Council (EPC) Francisco Pinto Balsameo has commented that the business model used by internet search engines such as Google "reverse the traditional permission-based copyright model of content trading that we have built up over the years."

Balsameo added that "It is fascinating to see how these companies 'help themselves' to copyright-protected material, build up their own business models around what they have collected, and parasitically, earn advertising revenue off the back of other people's content."

Helena Spongenberg of the Associated Press points out that although Google relies on advertising for its revenue, Google News does not actually display ads. In which case, is Balsames's above criticism really fair when directed at Google?

Steve Langdon of Google responded to the accusations with the following comments: "Search engines do not reproduce content. They help users find content by pointing to where it exists on the Web." But he made it clear that, "Google removes Web sites from its news index if a publisher doesn't want the content listed."

Balsameo's position supports that of AFP, which is suing Google, for at least 17.5 million dollars in damages, claiming "Google News ... infringes on AFP's copyrights by reproducing information from the Web sites of (its) subscribers."

The gripe is with free internet content; Balsameo said that consumers are being attracted to the internet by free content and this has to stop. But isn't the snowball already halfway down the mountain? Free content is here to stay. What needs to happen is that the Mainstream Media adapt to the present climate, re-evaluating their business models.

Thanks to Robb Montgomery for the tip on this article.

Source: Yahoo News