The debate
between online news publications and Google over copyrights infringement can be
described as no less than heated. Publications understandably want compensation
for their headlines and their content. This war between Google and online news
sources has been compared to the copyright war in the music industry. This comparison
begs the question: “Is Google “sampling” too much?” Google claims it samples only
a little, giving readers only a taste for the content of most stories and
drives traffic to the original source for the real meal. Interestingly, the editor
at Wall Street Journal, Robert Thomson, vocally supports newspaper mogul,
Rupert Murdoch and other online publications, who call foul on Google, but uses
search engine optimization to get the most out of Google search. Google argues no copyright infringement on their
part and seemingly demands a “thank you” from online news publications for driving
traffic to their website.
These
articles really encompass the question posed in Tuesday’s lecture: “Where’s the
money?” It is like mystery movie or a great puzzle, that once solved will
expose a reveal akin to a M. Night Shyamalan movie. Everyone will be saying, “It
was right there the whole time!”