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

[Seth Johnson]

I thought it was pretty generally recognized that the intermediaries
were obsolete.


Seth



-----Original Message-----
From: Manon Ress <manon.ress@keionline.org>
To: a2k discuss list <a2k@lists.essential.org>
Date: Mon, 13 Jul 2009 15:24:04 -0400
Subject: [A2k] Robin Wauters: European Publishers Band Together To
Underscore Lack Of Understanding Search Engines, The Web

> http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/13/european-publishers-band-togethe
> r-to-underscore-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.epceurope.org/presscentre/archive/International_publisher
> s_demand_new_intellectual_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=
=92s
> 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
>
>
>
>
>
>
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