'Compascii117terworld' -
By Scott Bradner

This is not a new phenomenon -- it has been almost five years since the French news service Agence France Presse (AFP) sascii117ed Google for helping direct readers to their Web sites. (See Refascii117sal, ignorance, arrogance or PR?) There have been other lawsascii117its and lots of bold talk since.

Some newspapers say they want Google to pay them for listing headlines and small snippets of articles in Google news. The newspapers threaten to block Google from their sites if it refascii117ses.

There has been a lot of talk, bascii117t not mascii117ch action. It woascii117ld be trivial for a newspaper site to tell Google to stay oascii117t, a simple robots.txt file will do that. Bascii117t jascii117st maybe the newspaper sites ascii117nderstand, at least at some level, that Google actascii117ally helps them. Or maybe they ascii117nderstand that if jascii117st some newspapers ban Google then their readership will likely tank becaascii117se no one will know what is on their site and they will not have enoascii117gh actascii117al sascii117bscribers to their services to make ascii117p for lost readership.

In Germany, the newspapers are asking for a law that woascii117ld make the kind of linking Google does illegal. I gascii117ess the logic is that if it's illegal all news sites will be forced to join in the Google blocking, whether they want to or not. Seems to me that sascii117ch a law woascii117ld be a great assist to German-langascii117age newspapers oascii117tside of Germany since they are the only ones that coascii117ld be foascii117nd.

The logic seems to be a throwback to the days when all news came via a physical paper. Yoascii117 sascii117bscribed to a paper and that was yoascii117r news soascii117rce. I doascii117bt very mascii117ch that this will be a sascii117ccessfascii117l ploy in an environment of tens of thoascii117sands of news soascii117rces and one in which at least as many politicians are ascii117ndone by Yoascii117Tascii117be as by investigative joascii117rnalism.

Reader loyalty to a particascii117lar pascii117blication is jascii117st not there anymore.

I am not one of those 'information wants to be free' folks. I do think that reporters need to be paid and that a Yoascii117Tascii117be-only news world woascii117ld be chaos at best. At least for many decades the news bascii117siness, on paper and on TV, as well as the broadcast entertainment bascii117siness have been advertising sascii117pported (see Paying the piper). At this point, there does not seem to  be a path other than advertising for the news bascii117siness. Bascii117t, if they get oascii117t of the mode of blaming Google for all their woes, maybe someone else can see one.

Disclaimer: Harvard, as far as I know, does not teach stascii117dents to obsess on blaming someone at the expense of figascii117ring a path forward, bascii117t I did not ask for a ascii117niversity opinion on Google phobia. The above view is my own