The main media lobby behind Spain’s new intellectual property law, which caused Google to announce that it was to close Google News in Spain, has backpedaled and proclaimed it wants the Spanish government and European competition authorities to intervene to stop Google shutting down the service.
New legislation requires every Spanish publication to charge services like Google News for showing even the smallest snippet from their publications, whether they want to or not This has prompted Google to shut down the service on December 15th for every newspaper, blog and online journal originating in Spain.
The Spanish Newspaper Publishers’ Association issued a statement Friday night, stating that Google News was “not just the closure of another service given its dominant market position”, recognizing that Google’s decision: “will undoubtedly have a negative impact on citizens and Spanish businesses”.
Major media publications stand to gain the most with Google News shutting down, as the general public will have fewer choices to discover start-ups and small news outlets. It looks like the majority of small and medium sized companies are ramping up their efforts to try and get Google to remain open for business, as the aggregation service is pivotal for new users and to monetize their websites with online advertising.
When it comes down to it, the media lobby organization bit off more than it could chew. They want the best of both worlds, lots of search engine traffic, but want Google to conform to their narrow views.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.