

Wpost Opinion on Bailing Out Newspapers - tdonia
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/15/AR2009051503000_pf.html

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jasongullickson
_"Publishers should not have to choose between protecting their copyrights and
shunning the search-engine databases that map the Internet. Journalism
therefore needs a bright line imposed by statute: that the taking of entire
Web pages by search engines, which is what powers their search functions, is
not fair use but infringement. "_

Reading this, the term "spoiled sport" comes to mind...

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sp332
"Publishers should not have to choose between protecting their copyrights and
shunning the search-engine databases that map the Internet."

Then put it behind a paywall. Or at least put a small, indexable summary page
in front of an unindexed article (using robots.txt). Or invent your own search
engine/news aggregator.

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donaldc
I think that the lawyers who wrote the article would have benefited from
consulting with a couple of qualified internet engineers.

Having said that, the piece was written by lawyers, so it isn't surprising
they see primarily a legal solution to the problems newspapers are facing.
When all you have is a hammer...

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gills
See, the strategy here is to conglomerate _everything_ into one giant too-big-
to-fail media monopoly, then get a never-ending stream of taxpayer handouts to
keep the tipsy inverted pyramid of bad journalism and political spin from
meeting it's final and spectacular demise by ten million otherwise-unemployed
FOIA-armed citizen journalist bloggers.

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johnnybgoode
Dupe: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=613221>

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tialys
It seems funny, to me, that they would talk about making Google do the
legwork. If this took effect, Google could simply do nothing -- and watch as
the people who forced them to 'come negotiate' crumble. Google is the gateway
to the internet for a lot of people. If you aren't in Google, you don't exist.
This seems like the exact opposite of what these companies want. Also, the
claim that "[newspapers] don't have the tools [to build a new model]" is utter
crap. The newspapers have neglected the internet, and it's coming back now to
bite them in the ass.

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prospero
Search engines aren't a public service. The article half-way acknowledges the
robots.txt solution, and quickly dismisses it as unworkable. It's clear,
however, that publishers have a recourse if they feel the search engines are
doing them more harm than good. If they want finer granularity than is
currently available, they need to talk to Google, not the government.

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Dilpil
I don't understand, are they upset that you can view cached versions of them?

Or are they upset other people are selling information for cheaper?

