Possibility to end with influence of 'link tax' that copyright fee is charged only by linking Google News

by lalo Hernandez

There is a possibility that Google's news aggregator service " Google News " will be closed due to the influence of the " link tax ", which is subject to a copyright fee just by pasting a hyperlink that is being considered for introduction in the EU .

Google News may shut over EU plans to charge tax for links | Technology | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/nov/18/google-news-may-shut-over-eu-plans-to-charge-tax-for-links

Link tax is to make it possible to request payment of copyright fee for links that are countless on the Internet. Details about link tax and what is wrong are summarized in the following articles.

Commercial fee is charged only by pasting hyperlinks Known "link tax" is about to be introduced in the EU - GIGAZINE

Due to the advent of this link tax, the Guardian of overseas media reported that Google News could terminate the service. However, Richard Ginglas, vice president at Google, said "It is not desirable to terminate the service (of Google News)," says the termination of service is not the best policy. However, Mr. Ginglas acknowledged the possibility that the future of Google News will change significantly due to the EU's link tax, "I can not decide until the EU's revised copyright law is finally decided" I will.

Mr. Ginglas cited the case when the Spanish government asked Google for payment of the copyright fee for the link in 2014 and acknowledged the possibility of taking the same action as then. At that time, the government passed a bill to mandate the government to pay the copyright fee to the link on the news site in Spain. At that time, since Google responds by terminating the service of Google News which was offered in Spain, if the link tax is introduced even in the EU, there is no choice but to finally end the service There is a possibility.

Mr. Ginglas said "I hate what is happening in Europe" about the movement requesting copyright royalties on the european link. Furthermore, he says that "I'm working with stakeholders right now," he says he wants to exchange directly with companies that have interests.

However, The Guardian points out that traditional newspaper companies and others are very difficult to build relationships with Google. Because Google sucked up most of the newspaper advertisement revenue. However, as many of the regular users rely on Google News for day-to-day news checks, millions of readers are being sent to each website by Google, and Google is a part of increasing media revenue It is a fact that buying.

Google clearly shows the opposite position against the EU's link tax and the revised copyright law 13 "Compulsion of Content Recognition System" obliging the introduction of a system for checking whether uploaded content is not a copyright infringing matter He is doing a lobbying work hard. Why is Google opposing Article 13? If content uploading copyright infringement is uploaded to a service like YouTube which is one of Google's services, YouTube will order payment of copyright fee It is because it will be done.

There are as many as 500 million prospective users in the EU and major IT companies such as Google and Facebook do not do things like to miss seeing access from this huge number of users. Therefore, Google thinks that it wants to influence EU and EU member countries before the revised copyright law is approved, and for that reason, it seems that measures are taken mainly on many lobbying activities. In addition, the UK will formally withdraw from the EU on March 29, 2019, but if the revised copyright law is to be introduced so far, it is highly likely that it will be subject to law in the UK It is.

Mr. Ginglas emphasizes that Google News is not a business to raise Google's profits, and emphasizes that more users are using Google News, "We do not have any ads on Google News, It is not a service to create.We consider Google News to be valuable as one of the service to society and we believe that it is part of the property owned by people and we operate with pride. " I am talking.