There are strange present moment when you sense ashamed not as an individual , but as a penis of a collective , of something big . In my case , today , it ’s of being Spanish . And what I feel justly now is a cryptical , fundamental sensory faculty of absurdness .
The first rumours start to swirl late last night , and today in the other hours of the morning we got the verification : Google News is close in Spain . Why ? It is the direct upshot of the new Copyright Law approved in the land ( more details about this trumpery natural law here ) , which storm Google to pay a “ tax ” to all the traditional sensitive firm ( mostly newspapers ) for appearing in Google News .
That ’s correct : Apart from Google sending them tons of traffic , publishing company want the search engine to devote them . Google ’s chemical reaction ? Shuttering Google News in Spain . The determination suggests Google is simply above gratuitous dramatic play : If a land importune on modifying its laws to favour the greed of a cluster of local company — more like a mafia gang than a government activity — Google closes its doors and folio . As simple as that .
What ’s wry about the whole situation , mirthful even , is the berth of the media companies from the AEDE lobby — the ones drive the new jurisprudence . Imagine for a 2nd their reaction when they open their own newsprint : “ What ? check on , Google is closing ? ” Something like that .
Seriously , what did you expect ?
What the media firms from the AEDE lobby have just done is nonsensical : rather of securing a voluntary ( no one forces them to be included in Google News ) , constant and considerable reference of dealings , they opted to sting the hand that feeds them and , after an expressage - law , ram Google to bear them . No way out . It ’s like getting furious if you receive a present tense you do n’t like , but just because you do n’t know what to do with it or how it works out of ignorance . Google , probably bored of the whole situation , just decide to shrug shoulders and walk away . What remains for the rest of us ( with or without AEDE ) is perfectly nothing .
Spanish Minister of education , José Ignacio Wert , responsible for the young coypright legal philosophy that has ended in Google closing Google News in Spain . AP
As one media execpoints out correctly , the true “ Google Tax ” will happen when a lot of those media firm from AEDE have to turn to paid Google AdWords to compensate for loss derive from their absence in Google News . One way or another , it will happen , and it will be very fun to keep an eye on it .
When it occur , more than one supporter of the young Spanish right of first publication jurisprudence will in all probability start feeling that same sensation of pity and ridiculousness . That ’s what Google has done today with Spain in front of millions of eyes worldwide : put the country to shame . And we should thank them for it ; it was about fourth dimension someone did .
This mail originally appear in Spanish inGizmodo en Español , Gizmodo ’s version for Spanish - talk readers worldwide .
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