It looks like some newspaper publishers are pining for the "good ol'
days" when they had more control over their relationship with readers.
The World Association of Newspapers is
exploring ways to "challenge the exploitation of content by search engines without fair compensation to copyright owners."
An executive with the organization tells Reuters that Google is
"building a new medium on the backs of our industry." The executive,
Ali Rahnema,
suggested that search engines might be violating copyright law by
republishing headlines, photos, and story summaries without
compensating content providers.
Gavin Reilly, president of WAN, goes so far as to pronounce search engines guilty of "kleptomania."
I'm not a lawyer, but my understanding is that under current U.S. law
(as interpreted by the courts), these practices are legal under the
"fair use" exemption to copyright. Copyright laws elsewhere -- such as
the European Union -- are different, though. I suppose it's possible
that there's a legitimate legal case there.
The problem is, publishers already can block search engines from
indexing their sites through technological means. Maybe they should try
that first and see if search engines (or their users) care.
Unfortunately, most would learn that they need Google (and other search
engines) more than the search engines need them.
At PaidContent.org,
Rafat Ali is already calling this a "
PR nightmare" for the newspaper industry.
...can one get. Does anyone here remember the Reader's Guide...
