I think
Rupert Murdoch had a similar beef a few years ago. He was sick and tired of
Google linking to articles on his properties. I found that mindset amazing.
If Google scrapes your article and publishes them at its own property passing for its own, that is a huge problem. But if Google shows you up in search results, if it links to your articles from the
Google News page, how is that a problem for you? What do you want? Less traffic to your site? I don't get it.
Learn from
The Drudge Report about how to survive in this digital age.
French Minister Says Google Faces Critical Questions Over Copyright
French lawmakers want to pass a bill that would tax Google for content it currently indexes for free, after newspapers lobbied for the measure. .... Brazilian newspapers have taken the more extreme step of boycotting Google for the past year. .... The company noted in a letter it directs 4 billion people a month to French publishers’ pages, so a Google ban would be a significant blow to newspapers, too.
How are the Brazilians managing to stay away from Google? Beats me.
Boycott of Brazilian newspapers on Google becomes a model abroad
The Brazilian newspapers' pioneering boycott on Google News - most newspapers haven't allowed links with news to be displayed on the search engine for over a year - has raised interest abroad. ..... information requests from French, German and Chilean newspapers. ..... boycotting Google News helped to bring down one of the arguments the search engine used, that being featured on the search lists helps to improve audience - which could lead to more publicity revenues. ..... Since the newspapers associated with ANJ, which represent 90% of the market, decided to give up having their articles displayed by the search engine, their traffic declined on average less than 5%. ..... Unlike Brazil, in Germany and other European countries copyrights belong to journalists, not the newspaper.
I still don't get it. Even if you charge people to access your content, showing up in Google's search results would be in your interest, one would think. Scratch, scratch. Why is losing that 5% a good thing?
