[A2k] Robin Wauters: European Publishers Band Together To Underscore Lack Of Understanding Search Engines, The Web

[Manon Ress]

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/13/european-publishers-band-together-to-u=
nderscore-lack-of-understanding-search-engines-the-web/

European Publishers Band Together To Underscore Lack Of Understanding
Search Engines, The Web

by Robin Wauters on July 13, 2009

International publishers demand new intellectual property rights
protection to safeguard the future of journalism.

That=92s the title of a press release distributed late last week by the
European Publishers Councel (EPC), which you can find here [http://www.epce=
urope.org/presscentre/archive/International_publishers_demand_new_intellect=
ual_property_rights.shtml
] . Pretty heavy stuff, right? They don=92t ask, they demand. They=92re
not looking for more effective application of the current IP rights
protection, they want an entirely new one. And once they=92ve secured
that, the future of journalism will be safeguarded (hold the applause).

The rest of the news release contains more gems, like this quote from
Gavin O=92Reilly, Group Chief Executive Officer, Independent News &
Media, President of the World Association of Newspapers and News
Publishers (WAN-IFRA) and Chairman of ACAP (Automated Content Access
Protocol):

     =93We continue to attract ever greater audiences for our content
but, unlike in the print or TV business models, we are not the ones
making the money out of our content. This is unsustainable. Publishers
failing will benefit no-one, least of all consumers, or indeed the
search engines and other aggregators who currently make huge profits
on the back of our intellectual property=94.

Whether you agree with the man or not, read Danny Sullivan=92s many
excellent blog posts on this topic to get some perspective. My
personal favorite is this one: =93Google=92s Love For Newspapers & How
Little They Appreciate It=94. There=92s no better response to O=92Reilly=92=
s
assertions.

So what exactly prompted the EPC to push out the press release, once
again underscoring their desperation in finding a viable business
model now that media usage and content generation has fragmented to a
point where the world of information consumption is simply not what it
used to be anymore, whether publishers like it or not? Turns out the
Council has started petitioning Europe=92s media commissioner Viviane
Reding against unpaid use of their members=92 content by aggregators and
search engines.

Their intentions are neatly outlined in this Hamburg Declaration
(PDF), which is rapidly garnering loads of signatures from publishers
around the world, including Mathias D=F6pfner (Axel Springer AG,
Germany), James Murdoch (News Corp, Europe and Asia), The Rt. Hon. The
Viscount Rothermere, (Daily Mail and General Trust, UK), Ian Smith
(Reed Elsevier, UK), Hannu Syrjanen (Sanoma, Finland), Robert Thomson
(Dow Jones, Wall Street Journal, US) and many more. An excerpt from
the declaration:

     Universal access to websites does not necessarily mean access at
no cost. We disagree with those who maintain that freedom of
information is only established when everything is available at no
cost. Universal access to our services should be available, but going
forward we no longer wish to be forced to give away property without
having granted permission.

Translation: we still want all the traffic Google is sending our way
for free so we can generate enough page views to keep our advertisers
happy and revenues up (barely), but we also want to be able to charge
people for reading our content and punish those who spread this
information to even more people. Surely, that will safeguard journalism.

Miss Reding, you can safely ignore this declaration, no matter how
many dinosaurs link their name to it. And feel free to quote me on
that anywhere on the Web.


***************************************************************************
Manon Ress
manon.ress@keionline.org
Knowledge Ecology International
1621 Connecticut Ave, NW, Washington, DC 20009 USA
Tel.:  +1.202.332.2670, Fax: +1.202.332.2673