German news publishers are picking up where the Belgians left off. It’s a now less proud tradition of suing Google for being on the list rather than choosing to opt out. This time, the publisher wants his 11% cut in Google’s revenue related to listings.
The news comes from Jeff Jarvis, who calls on a group representing about half of Germany’s major news publishers to pay Google 11% of the revenue associated with listing links and descriptions of their content. It writes that it has initiated an arbitration process.
As of August 1, 2013, the actual lawsuit (in German) from the VG Media industry group is claiming up to 11% (plus VAT!) of the total worldwide turnover related to content.
Beyond what the Leistungsschutzrecht allows?
VG Media from Spiegel (also German, working on Google Translate) includes 12 publishers, including the giant Axel Springer. The story also suggests that publishers feel entitled to demand licensing fees because Google’s use goes beyond the new German copyright law made last year.
This law, called “auxiliary copyright” or “Leistungsschutzrecht”, gave search engines the freedom to use words or very short text excerpts. Apparently, the VG Media group feels that the use is taking place where they can demand payment.
The move created two major absurdities. First, it is very difficult to even know how much money these links will make.
Calculation Difficulty of Publisher’s Cut
Google News itself has no ads. As Jarvis writes, “Is the publisher he asking for 11% of 0?” It shows.
If we calculate the 11% payout here, it looks like the publisher wants to know every time their content appears with their ad on a search results page. Then, if any of those ads make money, we need 11% of that.
It’s difficult for Google to figure this out, but it’s possible. We are already telling publishers through Google Webmaster Tools what the page visibility is like. Certain publishers can clearly see if a page is appearing in the top results.
Determining whether the publisher was where the ad was clicked would require more work. Should the publisher, her one of the 10-30 links that may appear on the page, get all the credit for a single click and give her 11% of the revenue? There is an even bigger debate as to whether.
Publishers are not coerced by Google
All that is likely to be discussed in arbitration. But that leads to the second great absurdity. Google does not force publishers to join Google at all.
Let’s do a little history.
In 2006, Belgian news outlets sued Google over its inclusion in Google News, demanding its removal. They didn’t have to sue. There was a mechanism in place for them to opt out.
After winning the first lawsuit, Google dismissed the lawsuit upon request. The publication then saw a dramatic drop in traffic and rushed to bring it back. When they returned, they took advantage of the exact opt-out mechanism (mainly to block page caching) that was in place prior to the lawsuit. Always used.
The affair lasted for a total of six years. In the end, it was settled by what often happens when Google fights with publishers. Google promises vague collaborations to support the industry. See also his €60 million “Digital Publishing Innovation Fund” created for France last year.
German newspapers can opt out of Google registration as easily as Belgian newspapers were able to in 2006. They even have more granular control if Google assured Italian news outlets in 2011 that they would opt out of Google News. It didn’t mean they would be completely removed from Google. But even before that, it was my understanding that it was always possible to request removal from Google News, but generally still appear in Google Search.
In short, if German publishers feel that Google is unfairly infringing on their rights without payment, Google will follow industry standard practices that all of these publishers absolutely need to know. You have a valid argument that you have not been able to prevent this using
Also, some publishers are working to increase visibility for ‘free’
In fact, Axel Springer’s Bild publication (one of the largest) utilizes Google’s Publisher Code to appear in Google’s search results.
Elsewhere on the site, there are news keywords specifically intended to increase the likelihood that Bild will index and increase your chances of ranking better on Google by explicitly telling Google to “follow” links within your site. I have code that shows that I am providing a
This sort of thing, along with evidence that any of these publications use a Google Sitemap listing, implement Google authorship, or utilize Google Webmaster Tools, is a proof that the publisher You will prove that you are not involved in the consequences of will.
Rather, it shows that publishers are willing to leverage Google for free traffic.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.
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