Where is the money?

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!”