I am against the Google tax, although perhaps the name does not do too well because Google is not going to pay a single euro. This is one more of these absurd laws to put doors on the Internet, which will not solve anything but will harm many.
Surely some will be surprised that this opinion comes from a blog that collaborates precisely with one of the media that is part of that tangle of companies called AEDE. In fact, I know that the AEDE media blocker that circulates out there also blocks this blog, even though it is nothing more than a subdomain (“If you are not against them, you are with them”, they even told me, anyway…).
Without links from other sites, this blog would be nothing and it is welcome that this article ends up in Menéame.
Charging for linking seems like an absurdity of cosmic proportions to me because you are simply sharing information and advertising a certain site. Without links from other sites, this blog would be nothing and it is welcome that this article ends up in Menéame, in Google News or Twitter, because it will mean that more people will read it and I will have more advertising income.
If a title and an insignificant extract are used (such as those of the aforementioned services) there is absolutely no reason to think that the linked medium will be harmed, because the user who wishes to read the news will access the original source. However, bloggers (and possibly large media outlets) have always had problems with aggregators that copy all the content of an article, showing it as their own, and that is the problem to which a solution should be found.
The media that thought Google would reach an economic agreement with them, as happened in France, may be forgotten.
Of course, the solution is not to make the right to remuneration inalienable, thus preventing me from expressly stating that linking to this blog is free. Nor does it seem fair to me that the management entities are the ones that are going to collect money that I have not claimed.
The law is made, the trap is made. Google News has already announced that it is closing in Spain, so if the media thought Google would reach an economic agreement with them, as happened in France, they can forget about it. Other services like Menéame will be forced to establish their servers outside of Spain and holy Easter and others will be forced to close.
Despite everything, visits to the media (and newspaper sales) will continue to fall and they will once again find an excuse to subsidize their business in another way.
Image by Genbeta.