German publishers: Google, you owe us!
June 30, 2009 by Bernd Kling
Like their US colleagues they have not yet found a viable online business model. The president of the German magazine publishers association, a media mogul himself, thinks Google has to pay the bill. He wants new copyright laws to cash in on Google’s success.
Dr. Hubert Burda, publisher of some gossip and women’s magazines and even computer magazine Chip believes the Internet “link economy” is just plain wrong and gives seek engines, providers and others the advantage. Online advertising is a functioning model, he says, but seek engines aka Google are getting the biggest share.
If they are linking to our expensive content, Burda concludes, they have to pay. At the same time he laments about not being fairly treated by the seek engines algorithms. It doesn’t become exactly clear whether he wants his publications to be found or not.
He is one of Germany’s leading publishers putting pressure on German politics to change the law according to their wishes. Germany has not a copyright law in the US tradition. Its Urheberrecht is really a creator’s law and gives authors more rights then publishers. German publishers are eager to change that and are trying to convince the public this is essential for serious journalism to survive in the internet age.
They even argue democracy is at stake if they are not protected from seek engines – and receive the money these are earning. It has grown to a real publisher’s campaign as these publisher’s own and control mass market circulation tabloid Bild as well as leading news magazines Der Spiegel and Focus.
Media mogul Burda himself wrote a pamphlet published in respected conservative newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung titled “We are being expropriated slowly.” He names Google only once (“seek engines like Google or Yahoo”), but it gets clear he means Google – and wants to get its money.
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Zum Thema im Web:
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
Photo: Flominator / CC (Burda Building in Offenburg, Germany)
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