Media Bites Editorial – Tazeen Hasan
European Union is determined to end Google’s free riding with its new copy right initiative on digital contents. The tech giants who are making huge profits out of nowhere will be obliged to share profits now with content producers.
European Union laid out a copy right plan for digital media this Wednesday September 14, and the US tech giant Google which was long been blamed for the demise of newspaper business has been targeted along with other digital platforms.
This means that Google could have to pay to publishers for hosting stories, or even snippets – headlines, accompanying pictures, quotes and introductory sentences – in future.
Publishers’ groups have welcomed the news as they claim to contribute to the success of digital platforms by providing high quality contents. Yet, they maintain that google and other platforms do not share their profits fairly.
Similar to publishers, the artist community blamed the YouTube and said more people are listening to music than ever, but this is not reflected in performers’ income.
The current EU proposal would make it mandatory for video platforms to scan users’ content for protected material.
Such material is today removed only after individual complaints, and, in many cases, is reposted under a different username almost immediately afterward.
Furthermore the EU also wants to increase transparency by forcing platforms to provide profit figures to make it clear how much money they are making on artists and reporters’ content.
It should be noted that the same copy right initiative had failed in Germany and Spain in the past as some websites saw traffic drop by up to 80 percent as a consequence and eventually 90 percent of the news websites had to waive their rights to Google.
Google voiced criticism over the way the commission wanted to support content producers. ”Paying to display snippets is not a viable option for anyone”, Google’s Caroline Atkinson wrote.
The European Parliament’s rapporteur on copyright, Julia Reda also criticised the plan calling it a ”disaster for the Internet”.
EU is trying it's best to maintain a balance between content producers and platforms but in last two decades digital oligarchy have become the most powerful reality of this world. They are not states or superanatural powers like European Union but still they have achieved a dictatorship status who have full authority over their netizens.
Media Bites Editorial – Tazeen Hasan
