Google will shut down its News section in Spain following a new copyright legislation that lets publishers charge Internet companies for their content that’s aggregated by other websites. Even small snippets of news shown will be charged according to the new law. Google News does not show any advertisement on its site and hence cannot fit the bill of the new law.
Richard Gingras, head of Google News announced in a blog post on Wednesday, “This 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. As Google News itself makes no money (we do not show any advertising on the site) this new approach is simply not sustainable. So it’s with real sadness that on 16 December (before the new law comes into effect in January) we’ll remove Spanish publishers from Google News, and close Google News in Spain.”
In the past, German government passed a law, which obliged Google to pay newspaper publishers, if their news stories were being published on Google News. Google countered by including only those German newspapers who wished to be included in their news index to expressly forfeit such compensation. Publishers can “choose whether or not they want their articles to appear in Google News—and the vast majority choose to be included for very good reason,” Gingras wrote.The new legislation in Spain was backed by Spanish Association of Daily Newspaper Publishers (AEDE).
Along with the shut down, Google News will also not show any news from any Spanish Publication on its site. Gingras also explained in the blog post how the Internet has created tremendous opportunities for the users, but on the other hand, it is also a big challenge and tremendous competition for publishers, and also readers.
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