Brickbat: Pay per Link

The Oregon Senate Rules Committee voted 3–2 to advance a bill that would require big tech companies like Google and Meta to pay at least $104 million and $18 million annually, respectively, to Oregon newspapers and journalism programs for linking to their content, despite opposition from tech industry groups. Supporters, including some Oregon publishers, argue the bill is a lifeline for struggling local newsrooms, compensating them for content that tech giants profit from. Critics, including tech lobbyists and Senate Republican Leader Daniel Bonham, warn that companies might restrict Oregon news on their platforms, reducing traffic to news sites, and claim the bill could face legal challenges for violating constitutional laws. The bill now heads to the full Oregon Senate for a vote, with Democratic Gov. Tina Kotek indicating her support.

Comments

[Vernon Depner]

Maybe if the newspapers started practicing competent journalism again, they wouldn't be so desperate for money.

[SQRLSY]

"The Google Which Knows All Things" news feeds steer me, often, to news sites that are pay-walled. Under these stupid laws, will we then have to pay TWICE? Once for "The Google Which Knows All Things", and once for the pay-walled sites? Or will we pay armies of Government Almighty accountants and jack-booted thugs, to keep track of all of this shit, and who pays how much to how many pay-walled sites?

Job security for Government Almighty accountants and jack-booted thugs will stimulate our flagging economy, I suppose! Maybe we could just tariff-tax the news, or even tariff-tax access to the internet in general!

[Stupid Government Tricks]

If they did that, they'd lose Democrat support and really be in deep doo doo.

[mad.casual]

You say that like Big Tech/Social Media is a bastion of journalistic integrity rather than just a larger, more accessible cesspool.

[SQRLSY]

Solution: Proxies of Google (etc.) need to put up mirror sites (with Oregon news) in places that actually have internet freedom, such ass Iceland. Then Google can freely link to the proxy-mirror sites! Twat are the Oregon Government Almighty goons gonna do, tax Iceland's free speech?

"Today the people of Iceland said that Oregon newspapers said that..."

[Mickey Rat]

How are Google and Meta linking to their content a burden and not a benefit?

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Don't you even equity?

The burden is the envy local news publishers suffer from having less money than they think is just.

[Bubba Jones]

The belief seems to be that people are reading the three sentence summary in the google result, and not clicking through to the newspaper site where ads can be delivered.

"Featured snippets are one way that Google helps people more easily discover the information they're seeking."

So ... either block the snippets, or block the Google search NO ROBOTS

[Mockamodo]

Typical democrats. Hey google, either quit sending all these readers to my site or pay me for sending me customers!

[SQRLSY]

Government Almighty bean-counting micromanagers and jack-booted thugs already created, long ago, the crime of "money laundering". Now add "information laundering"! Reason.com will be TAXED if we the cummenters post news links! Or even links to OUR OWN web sites!

[diver64]

Government subsidizing of news always works out so well. Didn't we just see 4 years of censoring?

[SQRLSY]

Did Biden send the censor-shit violators, without trails, to be tortured in El Salvador? Somehow I missed that! Ya got any links?

[TJJ2000]

No. Biden didn't send himself to be tortured in El Salvador but he certainly deserved to be. 🙂

[Fist of Etiquette]

There are Republicans in Oregon?

[Vernon Depner]

Eastern Oregon, yes.

[Longtobefree]

In a museum.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

More like one of those outdoor safari parks, where superior people can drive through and see the primitive animals. "Kids, keep the windows rolled up!"

[Sometimes a Great Notion]

It's just a negotiation tactic. Silicon Valley is stealing their IP. Big Tech is poisoning our children. What do you libertarians not get about this!

[SQRLSY]

OUR children or YOUR children, Oh Collectivist? Whose village is raising YOUR children? The Collective Hive?

[Don't look at me! (This post comes with a 10% tariff)]

Future story:
Suddenly, and for no reason at all, google and meta no longer link to Oregon newspaper sites.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

And then the news sites sue Google and Meta for not linking.

[Medulla Oblongata]

Easy solution. Google and Meta can stop serving links from Oregon, and stop serving customers from Oregon.

[Medulla Oblongata]

Aren't most local papers now just rebranded cut&paste from USA Today and AP feeds, with Joe's Local Talk column stitched in?

[Incunabulum]

>Critics, including tech lobbyists and Senate Republican Leader Daniel Bonham, warn that companies might restrict Oregon news on their platforms, r

No mention that Google has already done exactly that?

I suppose the solution will be just to make another law mandating that tech companies link.

[TJJ2000]

...because that's what Democrats do.

They think Gov-'Guns' is the new/better trade-median and the old trade-median of *earning* and *justice* in trade is out-of-style.

Throwing-away the justice system for dog-eat-dog barbaric 'Gun' fights over the last twinkie ... because their 'Guns' don't make sh*t and is therefore a Zero-Sum resources ends.

[Dan S.]

When the World Wide Web was created, circa 1990, I don't think it ever occurred to creator Tim Berners-Lee that any government would try to tax web-page creators based on their links. Otherwise he probably would have included some kind of statement in the WWW specifications at least urging that there should never be any such charges. I wonder what he thinks now about this proposed law.