Google News to Pulls out of Spain

[levante]

In Spain every day we have more laws and less freedom.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by rcentros

They can probably file this one under "be careful what you wish for." I've never been able to figure out how it is detrimental to the publishers to have Google point users to their website for free. People pay Google to do that for them in other businesses.

They see Google with billions in cash reserves and they want some of it.
Since they didn't have a way to get to it, they got politicians to make up a law so they could. Nothing new, really. Just another form of "income redistribution" only a bit more blatant and targetted than usual.

Typically, corporate welfare taps consumers (like the new VAT guidelines) or taxpayers (direct and indirect subsidies to national champions and the like) for money. But with many euro economies on thin ice (Spain being one) the politicians couldn't go with the usual public largesse so they resorted to a more open use of the state's coercive power to grant private largesse.

Google's obvious response is to move out of the state's power.
Amazon faces a similar situation in India, where their plans to invest billions and local infrastructure and jobs drew a political response with laws intended to protect local companies.

There will be plenty more such efforts as long as the US looks the other way and fails to point out they are violating treaties by targeting specific companies.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

They see Google with billions in cash reserves and they want some of it.

I understand. It's not just the Spanish government (it actually looks like this specific law was bought and paid for by a specific lobbying organization). A year or two ago Rupert Murdoch threatened to sue Google for linking to his newspaper articles. (I believe it was Rupert Murdoch.) Google just told him that they could remove their papers from the service. I think that was the end of that particular case.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by levante

In Spain every day we have more laws and less freedom.

Happening in the U.S. too. I think Congress just quietly passed another law allowing the NSA even more random snooping powers. So much for probable cause.

[murg]

What Google should really do is bring back partial news links.

Linking to articles critical of the current Spanish government, supporting the independence of Catalonia, etc ...