As their business model has all but destroyed the notion of local news, it’s only right that big tech should compensate publishers for using their content
The news that France’s court of appeal has ruled in favour of the French Competition Authority’s order that Google must negotiate payments with publishers for linking to their content has provoked predictable howls of outrage from the tech industry and their more sympathetic commentators. “This,” observes Benedict Evans, the analyst recently returned from a big Silicon Valley venture capital firm, in his invaluable weekly newsletter, “is a fascinating logical fallacy – it makes perfect sense as long as you never ask why no one other than Google pays to link either and never ask why it should only be newspapers that get paid to be linked to.”
The only place where the news of the French decision seems to have been greeted with enthusiasm is Australia, whose Competition and Consumer Commission (ACC) is putting the finishing touches to a mandatory news code that will be introduced to parliament before the end of the year. This code will, like the French ruling, force Google and Facebook to negotiate payments with Australian publishers for using their content.
