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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.
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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.